Adressed to Mr Potter
by SLYTH3R1N
Summary: Originally a one shot about James getting his Head Boy letter, but I have been persuaded to write a series of one shots about the Marauders' 7th year. Review with a topic, and I'll write a one shot about it!
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything you recognise! I just own some of the plot!**

**A/N: This is just a one shot, but a few people have expressed interest in writing a sequel or more chapters. Please leave a review telling me what you think! **

A tawny owl flew through the clear blue sky of England on its journey to the Potter Mansion. The beating of its wings seemed to get more forced and came at longer intervals. After being airborne for 2 and a half hours, the owl finally spied its destination. Bending its head and readying itself for the descent, the bird glided down and perched itself precariously on the porch railing at the back of the house.

Had there been no one there to notice the owl's arrival, it may have fainted with exhaustion but lucky for the owl however, the infamous Marauders had deemed the porch as a worthy resting place and quickly came to the bird's aid.

A tall, lean boy with brown hair picked the bird up gingerly and carried it to a small fountain where the owl sipped at the water. Once it had seemed to have enough, the boy untied the package that was the reason for the owl's long journey and walked back to where his three best friends were sitting.

"What have you got there Moony?" A muscular black haired boy called out when his friend was in speaking distance.

"I don't know Pads, but it's addressed to you James. Open it!" Remus Lupin, or Moony; as he was affectionately dubbed by his friends, threw the package to James and waited eagerly to see what it was.

A boy with brown hair and glasses caught the package which was tossed to him and pulled out its contents. "It's a letter from Professor Dumbledore!" Looking up at his friends, the shock which was registered on his face seemed to be reflected on theirs too.

"Well hurry up and read it Prongs!" Sirius urged while rolling his eyes.

"Shut up Padfoot, I'm getting there you git."

It seemed that Sirius was used to these comments because it had no effect on him whatsoever and he went back to stuffing his face with pies, the task he had been in the middle of before the owl's arrival.

The fourth boy watched as Sirius devoured the pies, and decided that food was to be shared him, or there was to be no food at all. Blue eyes looking beadily at the pies, the short boy marched over to the plate of pies and took it back to his own seat.

Ignoring Sirius' outraged cries, James began to read out the letter.

_To Mr Potter, _

_It is my great pleasure to inform you that you have been awarded the position of Head Boy of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This position holds great responsibility and will require your utmost dedication, and I am sure you will uphold the reputation that all the previous Head Boys have set. _

_You will be working alongside Miss Evans who has been offered the position of Head Girl and I hope the two of you will put your differences behind you and come together as great leaders of this prestigious school. _

_There are dark times coming Mr Potter, and I believe you and Miss Evans can help unite Hogwarts resist the evil that is plaguing the magical world. The Head Students have always done exceptionally well and I expect nothing less from you and Miss Evans. Keep in mind that this is a great honour, and if you do not believe that you can fulfil the duties of Head Boy then please respond to this letter by Friday at the latest. _

_Congratulations once again, and I am looking forward to working closely with you in the coming year. _

_Hoping you are enjoying your holidays, _

_Professor Albus Dumbledore_

_Headmaster of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

Chuckling, James Potter put down the letter saying,

"Alright mates. Good prank, but a little too obvious I'd say! Okay, so who was it? Who sent the letter?"

His grin faded as he looked up at the flabbergasted faces of his best friends, and he looked from Remus to Sirius to Peter, waiting till one of them owned up.

Slowly forming words, Remus told James that he did not play any part in the prank, and if the fact that Sirius had fallen off his chair, and that Peter was still holding his pie centimetres away from his open mouth as he had been for the last minute had anything to say for themselves, it seemed that they didn't either.

"But... but you know as well as I do that this badge is for you Moony! Me? Head Boy? Yeah, that's just as likely as Lily agreeing to go out with me!" James scoffed as he sat back down in his hammock.

"Well it's official," Sirius stood up, looking his friends directly in the eye, "Dumbledore's cracked. There is no other reasonable explanation. Prongs as Head Boy? Hahah! Yep, Dumbledore's either cracked, or he's smoking crack. So take your pick boys, but Dumbledore sure isn't the smartest wizard any more!"

Peter glanced up from his fourth pie to ask,

"...What's crack? Is it anything like the cake you get from the Madam Puddifoot's because that stuff is rank!"

The other three boys simultaneously turned their heads to stare at Wormtail with varying levels of disgust. Finally Sirius asked the unspoken question,

"WHAT KIND OF SELF RESPECTING DUDE GOES TO MADAM PUDIFOOT'S?"

Peter at least had the decency to look ashamed before he instantly changed topics.

"Well anyway, what do you guys reckon Dumbledore was smoking before he sent this?"

"Pot. Most likely."

"No Padfoot, I doubt Professor Dumbledore was smoking pot. That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard, and I've lived with you three for the past 6 years." Remus interrupted before the conversation could get any more out of hand. "But if I had to choose something, I would say he was drunk. I've heard the teachers have parties where there is firewhiskey, and they get off the hook!"

Looking at the wondering faces of his three best friends, Remus wondered why he even bothered with such people.

"Guys, I was joking..." He clarified for the benefit of everybody else.

Coming out of what seemed to be a trance, James announced that he was going to show his parents his letter and walked back into the house. Taking this as their cue to leave, the other three boys dispersed and went back to amusing themselves with whatever sixteen year old boys find amusing.

_(That night)_

Later that night the boys settled into their respective beds, trying to catch their breath after yet another pillow fight. Pulling feathers out of his hair, James looked in the general direction of his best friends' beds and asked,

"So guys, what do you think I should do? If I take the offer that means significantly less pranking! And that means I sleep in a different room from you guys too? That would make going out on full moon's harder to coordinate too. I mean, the map and the cloak will be in different rooms. It will be harder. But then again, I might finally have a chance with Evans. I don't know what to do, what do you guys think? ... Guys?"

Remus and Peter had fallen asleep after the exhausting pillow fight, so Sirius was the one who answered.

"Don't worry about us mate, we'll figure it out. Think about yourself, this will be great for your chances with Evans! This might finally be your year mate! Take the opportunity is what I say. But ultimately it's your choice. Just do what you think is right Prongs, I'm sure you'll choose the right option."

"...Wow, Padfoot you're going soft!" James chuckled as he settled back into his bed and turned off the light.

"Don't you dare tell anyone Prongs, or I swear I will make you regret it!"

James didn't have to see Sirius' face to picture the grin stretched out on it.

"Well thanks Paddy, I'll sleep on it."

"Alright, night James."

"Night Sirius." James smiled to himself as he drifted off into a peaceful slumber, Sirius really was his best mate.

_(A few days later)_

"Thank you both for attending this brief meeting, please take a seat." Professor Dumbledore gestured towards the two armchairs sitting opposite his desk as he watched James Potter and Lily Evans take their seats.

"Now, you both know why you are here. It is only Thursday, so you may change your mind and tell me tomorrow have either of you decided whether you would like to take the opportunity of being Heads of Hogwarts?"

Sweeping his coal black hair out of his eyes, James announced to the headmaster that he accepted.  
>"Yes, I would like to be Head Boy sir, and thank you for giving me this opportunity."<p>

Even to himself, his voice didn't sound like his own. It sounded more serious than usual and had a quality that made it seem mature. James decided that he rather liked it, and smiled at Professor Dumbledore.

The Headmaster gave him one sweeping glance before saying,

"Congratulations in that case! It is good to have you on board Mr Potter, I'm sure my year will be just as lively as yours!" His blue eyes twinkling as always, turned to face Lily next.

"And you Miss Evans? Have you yet made a decision?"He smiles gently, as if he knew of the battle raging inside of Lily's head.

"No Professor, not yet. I am still wondering if Potter and I will make a good team, but I will get back to you tomorrow." Lily sneaked a glance at James' crestfallen face and quickly back to the slightly disappointed one of Professor Dumbledore.

"Very well Miss Evans, I look forward to hearing your response tomorrow." He nodded once at Lily, and then continued with the meeting.

The rest of the 20 minutes seemed to go by very slowly to James, as he thought about what Lily had said. She didn't know if they could make a good team? That meant she still didn't trust James, even after all he had done for her. Or rather, tried to do for her. His mind made up, he marched out of the Headmaster's office once the meeting had been adjourned and turned to face Lily.

"I know you don't think this is going to work Evans, but please give me a chance. I understand as much as you do that this is an extremely important position, and considering what kind of things are happening outside of these walls, I hardly think it would be fair to just mess around with something like this. There's only one more year left Evans, just one more year until we're out there too." Here James took a deep breath and looked directly into Lily's eyes, his own hazel ones shining with determination.

"I'm sorry about the way I have treated you in the past and that's going to end. If you want me to stop bothering you, then I will. I have changed Evans, and just the fact that I apologised should show you that. I'm a new person and I need you to know that. I'm going to work hard and help you out wherever and whenever I can. So I just want you to know that I will be a great partner to work with. So please don't let this opportunity get away just because of me. If you take up the offer of being Head Girl I will never ask you out again. If you hold up your end of the deal, so will I. Just... just think about it okay?"

Apparently taken aback so much she couldn't find any words to say, Lily just nodded her head mutely. Feeling that he had completed what he had come to do, James said goodbye to Lily and walked down the dimly lit corridors of Hogwarts to where he apparated directly outside his front door, leaving a surprised and confused Lily Evans in his wake.

_(The following day)_

It was late on Friday afternoon when the fireplace of the Potter Mansion began to crackle and spit, and Professor Dumbledore's face emerged.

"Good afternoon boys, is James around?" Peter and Sirius shrugged their shoulders before Remus informed the Headmaster that he was sending an owl.

"I'll go get him sir, just a minute!"

"Thank you Mr Lupin, tell James that I only have a few minutes before I have a meeting to attend!"

Nodding, Remus swiftly exited the room and Sirius and Peter looked around awkwardly, avoiding each other's and Professor Dumbledore's eye contact.

Luckily James entered the room a moment later, followed by a puffed out Remus who had clearly been running to wherever it was that James had been sitting.

"What is it Professor? Is something wrong?" Straight to the point as always, James urged Dumbledore to tell him what happened.

Smiling, Professor Dumbledore just said,

"Oh no, everything is fine James. I just wished to tell you that Miss Evans has accepted her position of Head Girl and that all the details are sorted! The two of you will be required to attend another meeting next week, where the password for the Head Dorm will be chosen, and patrolling duty rosters will be made."

James' smile widened as the professor spoke, and he said,

"That is great news Professor, I look forward to the meeting!"

"Well that is all from me, I trust you boys will enjoy the rest of your holidays, and I shall see you next week James!" With a smile, Professor Dumbledore extracted his head from the fireplace and James jumped up and down jubilantly, waving his fist in victory.

"I'M GOING TO SHARE DORM WITH EVANS, I'M GOING TO SHARE A DORM WITH EVANS!"

Just at that moment, a tapping could be heard from the window and the boys turned to find the source of the noise. A small white owl with a letter tied to its leg was staring right back at them, it's beady eyes trying to communicate some sort of silent message.

"Stop staring and open the window you idiot!" Remus' voice jolted James out of his little daydream as he raced to the window to let the small owl inside.

Opening the letter which was until recently tied to the owl's foot, James' eyes widened in shock.

"What is it Prongsy? Are you ok?"

"Evans...Evans sent me a letter!" James yelled in glee and walked back to his friends where they all pored over the letter.

_To James, _

_Yes, I wrote James - not Potter- and__ you are probably wondering why. Well if Professor Dumbledore hasn't already told you – I accepted the position. So I figured that if we're going to be practically living together for this year, we may as well call each other by our first names. _

_I thought about what you said to me yesterday and decided that if you were as mature as you seemed to be, then we could work something out. You better be a responsible Head Boy and not let me regret taking the offer of being Head Girl, or there will be consequences! And yes I mean that, I am actually quite good at revenge. _

_Anyway I just wanted to let you know about the recent developments, so I guess I'll be going now. _

_Lily_

_P.s: I guess you should call me Lily too. And also, I have held up my end of the deal so you better hold up yours. As I said earlier, I am rather good at revenge. _

"What deal is she talking about James? Please don't tell me you did something stupid yet again!" Remus buried his face in his hands, waiting to hear of what mess James had gotten himself into now.

"Bet? Oh yeah, I said that if she accepts the position of Head Girl, then I would never ask her out again!"

"WHAT?" Peter, Remus and Sirius practically exploded out of their seats when they heard this, appalled by this new piece of information.

"You've worked this hard to make sure Evans gets Head Girl, and now you can't even get together anymore? You idiot!" Sirius shook his head at James' stupidity and sat back in his chair.

However James just grinned at his friends saying,

"Don't worry boys. By the end of this year, she'll be the one asking me out!"

"How is that even possible? It's taken her six years just to say 'James' remember?" Remus, always the voice of reason pointed out.

James smiled as he put the letter down, it didn't matter what his friends thought. This was the year he would finally win over Lily Evans. He could just tell.

**A/N: Please just take a minute to review, telling me whether you want a sequel or just your thoughts! Pretty please? With a cherry on top? **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**A/N: Hi again! This story was supposed to be a one shot, but people asked me to write a sequel or a series, so I am going to write a series of one shots about the Marauders' 7th Year!**

**Since I do not have too many ideas at the moment, please review with a topic or a suggestion, and I will write a one shot about it! It won't be as long as this chapter, this one is around 3200, but it'll most likely be around 1000 words, give or take a few. **

**I hope you like it! :)**

Hues of dark green, brown and blue all rolled into one as the Hogwarts express sped through the landscape, leaving the muggle world behind. The floor of one of the compartments was covered with wrappings from Pumpkin Pasties, Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans and the slightly charred remains of what had once upon a time been Peter's corned beef sandwich. Hogwarts robes were seeping out of the gaps of the already bulging trunks, only to be ignored by the four boys lounging about on the seats. Each of them had had a messy pile of chocolate frog collectible cards beside them, and they took it in turns to read out the description on the cad and see who could guess the person first.

"Ooh I know! Pick me! I know the answer!" Sirius Black exploded out of his seat, and bounded around the now slightly claustrophobic compartment only to fall into the lap of an unsuspecting Remus Lupin, who pushed Sirius roughly to the ground without any hesitation.

"Ow Remmy! I'm going to have a bruise now!" Rubbing his shoulder, Sirius looked at Remus with his bottom lip stuck out.

Remus however, was strongly opposed to his new nickname and hastened to warn Sirius against using it.

"Say that again Padfoot, and your shoulder won't be the only part of your body that's hurting." He muttered darkly before popping a chocolate frog into his mouth.

"Moving on," Sirius began, "I know whose card it is! It's Agrippa!"

Patience was apparently not his forte, as he tried to wrench the card out of James' hands before James finally relented.

"YES! AND PADFOOT IS CORRECT AGAIN!" With this, Sirius began dancing in a circle, his mane of shaggy black hair bouncing in time. "Skills that pay the bills!"

There was a moment of rare silence in the company of the four boys, until Peter choked out,

"Skills that pay the bills? That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard! It's even stupider than that time in third year when James wanted to ask Lily out and he-"

Whatever James had done in attempt to win Lily's heart was apparently never to be mentioned again, because James leapt out of his seat and tackled Peter, making him swear to never bring up the situation again.

"As much as I love spending time with my favourite idiots," Remus announced as he stood up and straightened out his robes, "I have to get going as I am very nearly late a prefect's meeting."

"Alright then Moony, we'll see you when you get back!" James nodded at Remus before getting back to showing off his new _Cleansweep_ to the Sirius and Peter.

Remus paused before sliding open the compartment door. "Maybe I should say it differently. I am very nearly late to a prefect's meeting which you and Lily should be preparing for right now James!"

"WhatdidyousayaboutLily?" James' attention had immediately been grabbed when the fateful word had been spoken, and his voice gained a dreamy quality – a sure sign to those in the know, that James Potter was on his way to daydreaming in the nonexistent world of Lily Potter.

"You. Head Boy. Prefect's meeting. Right now."

This seemed to ring a bell in James' head as his eyes widened in apprehension before he raced out of the compartment and tripped on the side of the door. Sent sprawling, James opened his eyes to see a group of giggling second year girls – the inhabitants of the compartment in which James had accidentally thrown himself into.

"Sorry about that ladies, enjoy your trip!" With a wink and charming smile, he was off again. Sprinting down the aisle of the train, he skidded to a halt in front of the Head carriage and stopped to gather his breath. Smoothing out the creases in the black robes pulled over his shoulders, James straightened out his Head Boy badge and confidently pushed open the door.

25 pairs of startled eyes turned to stare at him, but the only pair that James was concerned about were the bright green ones which belonged to the lovely Lily Evans, who was currently standing with her hands on her hips and glaring at him.

"Thank you James, for blessing us with your presence, but really it would have been more useful 10 minutes ago." Lily snapped icily, as James cringed internally. This really wasn't the best way to start of the year.

"My apologies Lily, I was simply sorting out an exchange of blows between two of the students, which I encountered on the way to this meeting." The lie simply spilled out of James' mouth as he opened it, and tried to put on his best innocent face when Lily's seemed suspicious.

Seeing Remus roll his eyes, James began to break out in a sweat. Did that sentence even make sense? He hoped it did, or Lily would think he was a complete idiot! He had heard Remus use some of the words before, but all in different circumstances.

Wait – Remus? How did Remus get to the meeting so quickly? Seeing James' confused expression, Remus just smirked and turned to face Lily.

Frustrated with himself, James focused all his attention on the reason he got up in the morning, Lily Evans. Her auburn hair was pulled back into a neat plait running half way down her back, and she was dressed in her Hogwarts uniform. How someone could look that appealing in a white button up shirt and a pleated skirt, James was unable to figure out. But what he did know, was that Lily Evans looked amazing in any outfit. He was positive she could dress up as the giant squid and still be the most attractive girl in the school by far, and he only felt pity for all the other girls who weren't even in Lily's league. She was so beautiful, and the way his name rolled off her tongue made James weak at his knees, wishing she would say it again. To his immense surprise, she did.

"James?" Great. Lily seemed to be waiting for some kind of response, and he had no idea what the question was.

"Um... no." Not knowing what else to say, James found an answer which he thought was a relatively safe one.

"Ok then, since James has nothing to add then this meeting is adjourned. Thank you for your prompt attendance, and check the patrolling roster on your way out. Maisy and Jacob will be doing the first round of patrolling on the train and then the next pair can start in an hour. Congratulations again on becoming a prefect, and we will see you all at the next meeting. Thank you." Lily finished her speech, and gathered up her papers without another glance in James' direction.

She swiftly exited the door before James could make an attempt to follow, so instead he walked back to the compartment with Remus.

Turning to his friend he said,

"Well this has been a great start to the year Moony. I screwed up my first duty as Head Boy, Lily is mad at me and I still didn't beat Sirius at exploding snap. Oh this year will be such a joy."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

"Lastly, congratulations to our Head students for this year; Lily Evans and James Potter." A smattering of applause was hear all around, and some enthusiastic cheering from the part of the table that the Marauders were situated at.

Grinning in a way that he hoped was mature, James raised a hand to acknowledge the applause, before sitting straight down. _Don't inflate your head. Don't inflate your head. Don't inflate your head._ James chanted this like a mantra, over and over in a hope that it would stick. Perhaps if he became the person Lily wanted him to be, then he would finally win her over. Oh well, there was no time to think of that now – not when there was chocolate mousse to be eaten! Taking a large helping for himself, James picked up his spoon and sailed right in.

3 more bowls of chocolate mousse and an hour later, James and the other three Marauders were lying on their beds groaning about the amount of food they had unceremoniously thrown into their stomachs.

"I think I just ate my body weight in chicken. So if I can't stand up properly tomorrow because my body can't support my weight, just tell Minnie she's welcome to visit me in the dorm anytime, since I won't be able to go to transfiguration." This said, Sirius rolled onto his side and fell asleep.

Eyes wide in amazement, Remus said, "How does he fall asleep that quickly? I'm awake at least for another hour after putting up with his snoring! Speaking of which, why are you sleeping in here with us today mate? Don't you have your own dorm?" The last bit was said as he took of his shoes and faced James.

"Yeah, but Professor Dumbledore said he'd keep an extra bed in our dormitories if Lily and I ever want to stay here for the night. But he said the Head Dorms are there for a reason, so we shouldn't make a habit of sleeping here too much."

Remus nodded his head sleepily and turned to say goodnight to Wormtail, only to find that Peter had fallen asleep on the floor next to his bed. Levitating him up to his bed, Remus muttered a quick goodnight to James and closed his bed hangings.

However James wasn't as sleepy as his friends seemed to be, so he sat on the window sill and looked at the glimmering stars which were winking at him from far away. The full moon was approaching and another night would be spent as Prongs, rampaging through the forest and keeping Moony entertained until he was tired enough to go to sleep, hopefully before he did any damage to himself. He hoped his rounds with Lily wouldn't be on the same day as full moons, or Lily would get mad at him for skipping so many times. Even worse, she might get suspicious about the timing of every time he skipped. It didn't matter to James at that moment as he thought about the adventures the Marauders would have at every full moon.

Sighing to himself, James glanced back at his three best friends and felt lucky once more to have them. They were more of brothers than they were friends, and he hoped they knew that. They listened to him rant about Lily, they helped him with his endeavours to capture Lily's heart, they helped him catch up with notes when he fell asleep in class, they visited him in the hospital wings whenever he injured himself from quiddich. He simply could not find any flaws. Smiling, James decided to call it a night and he settled into his warm bed before drifting off into the dream world, where he payed another visit to Lily Potter.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

"Woah!" James jerked Sirius' arm as his face sunk dangerously close to his eggs. "You slept like a bloody baby, why are you so out of it?"

"Hm, I don't know. Maybe because someone decided to wake me up at 3 o'clock in the morning just to tell me that HE WANTED TO BUILD A BROOMSTICK?" Sirius' curt reply somehow didn't register to James, as he completely missed the message.

"Someone's building a broomstick? Awesome! That's mad as, I want to meet this guy! Maybe I can help build it – who is it? Wait that's so weird, I have been wanting to build a broomstick for the past week, and I was going to tell you so that you could help-" Finally realising that it was him who woke Sirius up, James groaned and put his head in his hands.

Before Sirius could tell James exactly how much of an idiot he was, a loud noise a few metres away interrupted them. The post was had just arrived, and it was evident that Alice Prewitt hadn't gotten the best news. It wasn't new, people would leave the Great Hall in tears after receiving news about the death of their loved ones, and the saddest thing was that it was very common.

Alice's face was as pale as the sheet of paper she was reading, her hands shaking. A sob escaped from her lips as she buried her face in hands while Lily tried to comfort her best friend.

James looked at his friends and nodded, the silent communication between the four of them was very strong. All at once, the boys got out of their seats and made their way to where Alice and Lily were located and tried to comfort Alice. James, Remus and Peter took a seat opposite the two girls, but Sirius and Alice were good friends so he marched straight up to her and gave her a long hug.

"Why Sirius? Why? They were purebloods!" Alice was slowly getting hysterical, she could never keep her emotions in check for long. "They only died because they disagreed with that disgusting idiot of a human being." She was shrieking by this stage, and attracting a lot of unwanted attention from other students.

Sirius whispered words of comfort that no one other than Alice could hear, whose face was currently buried in Sirius' shirt, her tears soaking his uniform.

The other four remained silent, letting Sirius do his best to calm Alice down, because whatever he was saying was clearly working. Slowly she her sobs became silent, and she hiccupped to gather her breath.

A silence remained between the six of them, Alice with her bloodshot eyes downcast, and the other five trying to communicate silently about what to do. The not talking and not knowing what to do finally got the most of James. He had to do something, say something. Anything to diffuse the tension and calm Alice down a little. It would take a long time for Alice to actually move on, but they were going to help her get through it. James being James said the first thing that came into his mind, without even thinking about the reaction he would get.

"...Well at least you got mail today Alice, none of us four got any!" James said, referring to his three best friends.

The silence seemed to get louder, if that was even possible. James looked up to see the other five staring at, revulsion and anger written all over their faces. Clearly that had been the wrong thing to say. Her face filled with disgust, Lily swung her legs over the bench and walked towards the door that her best friend had very recently run through, sobbing her eyes out at the insensitive comment that James had spilt out without thinking.

Normally James could count on his mates to make him feel better whenever he did something stupid, but this time even they seemed to be appalled at his statement. Groaning, James slammed his head on the table and wallowed in a pit of self-loathing.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

After the password was given, the painting swung open to reveal the Heads' Common Room. James located the beautiful auburn hair he had learned to recognise, and walked over towards Lily. Sitting down beside her, he struggled to find a way to begin.

"What do you want Potter?" Lily's icy tone was expected, after all Alice and Lily were the best of friends.

"I...I'm sorry Lily. I'm really, really sorry. I didn't mean to say that earlier, it was a stupid thing to say and I'm sorry. I knew Alice was upset, I was just trying to change the topic so she wouldn't have to think about her parents' death." Sucking in a deep breath James looked up at Lily, seeing at once that her facial expression had not changed one bit.

Without looking up from her book she said, "Why are you telling me this? Go find Alice and apologise to her, she's the one who needs to hear it."

"I did! I already spoke to her and apologised, and then I stayed with her for an hour just talking, and I swear I tried to make her feel better!" James' earnest reply was wasted on Lily, whose mind was clearly made up on this topic.

Snapping her book shut, Lily finally turned to face James. "Once again Potter, why are you telling me this?"

"Because I owe you an apology too Lily. Let's be honest, I've been a pretty shitty head boy so far, and I've made you do all the work. I know I said in the holidays that I would be a great partner for you to work with, I still stick by that. I'm sorry that I haven't held my word, but I promise from today I will. From today I will make sure all the work is done, I will not be late to rounds, I will turn up to meetings and I will make it up to you as much as I can."

Lily's icy demeanour seemed to have faded slightly and she sighed before replying. "Okay. Fine. You keep your promise and do everything you are required to do. Meanwhile I'll do everything I am supposed to do and we'll get everything done. Plan?"

Shaking his head, James hastened to make sure Lily didn't get the wrong idea.

"No Lily, that's not what I mean. What you're saying basically means that we work separately to get the job done. That's not going to work Lily, you know it isn't. You heard what Professor Dumbledore said, we have to unite the school, be as one. If the two of us can't even work together then how can we ask everybody else to? We have to start somewhere, so we may as well start now. From now, you're Lily and I'm James. I know you said that in your letter, but you've started calling me Potter again. But we're not just Head Boy and Head Girl, we are friends. We are two friends who happen to be Heads of the school, and we will work as a team. Okay?"

To James' surprise, Lily was smiling slightly.

"Okay _James_. Friends." With that, she stuck out her right hand and the two of them sealed the deal by shaking hands.

"Well anyway I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow James." With a nod in his direction, Lily walked over to her room and shut the door behind her.

A smile spreading across his face, James stayed on the couch and revelled in his success. After six years of hard work, he had finally gotten Lily Evans to agree to be his friend. This called for celebration.

After telling his friends the news and pigging out in the kitchen, James returned to his Head Boy dorm. Kicking off his shoes and settling into bed, James drifted off to sleep with a smile on his face. This year was already looking brighter.

Who would've known that James Potter and Lily Evans would become friends? Certainly not him. He had hoped, but never had James dreamed that it would come true.

This was the first step to what James hoped would be a marvellous friendship. Maybe one day she would even agree to be his girlfriend! But hey, one step at a time.

**A/N: Please leave comments and reviews, because I personally didn't like this chapter too much, I want to know what you thought! Also as mentioned earlier, if you leave a review with a story suggestion, I will write a one shot about it! Thank you , :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**A/N: This chapter was suggested by: Blue Luver5000. Thank you for your suggestion and I hope you like it! The first bit isn't my best, but it gets better! **

**For anyone else with suggestions, please leave a review and I will get around to writing your topic! **

**Enjoy, and leave a review please! :)**

_*BRIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIING.*_

"WHAT THE BAJEEBUS WAS THAT?" Sirius Black was out of bed in a flash, his arms in front of him in a defensive stance.

Slowly opening his eyes, Peter yawned,

"Sorry Paddy. That's just the new alarm clock my mum got me for Christmas!"

Groaning, Remus picked himself off his bed and looked toward the source of the noise. There he saw Sirius tackling Peter to the ground, and seizing his opportunity – he grabbed his towel and sprinted to the bathroom.

Locking the door firmly, he heard Sirius realising his mistake and whining about him not having time to do his hair.

"Morning boys! Did Remus get the shower first again?" James entered the 7th year Gryffindor boys' dormitories, as he had already showered and dressed in his Head Boy dorm.

Sirius and Peter nodded their heads while James just grinned.

"You two just never learn! Anyway, what are we doing today?"

"I don't know what you losers are doing, but I have more important things to do Prongs." Running his hand through his shaggy mane of hair, Sirius turned to face James.

"Important things? You? That's a first! ...So what are you actually doing Pads?"

Throwing up his hands in mock outrage, Sirius put a scandalised look on his face.

"I so do important things Mr Prongs! I am a mature person and I do what mature people do. So deal with it." And with that incredibly mature statement, Sirius stuck his tongue out at James, and dived towards the bathroom which Remus just vacated.

"Peter!" Remus and James shook their heads, "You were supposed to make Sirius use the bathroom last! Peter?"

James turned to look at Remus, "Where did Peter go?"

As mind boggled as James was, Remus just shrugged his shoulders. Suddenly the door of the dormitories opened and Peter walked in.

"PETE! Where did you go mate? Wait- when did you go? You were on your bed the whole time! I swear!" James bounded out of his seat to shake Peter's shoulders, asking the smaller boy where he went.

Rolling his eyes, Peter simply said, "I went down to use the sixth year boys' shower, Jack let me in. Those guys take two minutes in the shower, tops. Not like Padfoot who stays in there for half of his life."

Clapping him on the back, the other two boys just smiled.

"Well good on you Wormtail! Now as payback to the git in the shower, let's leave him here and get some breakfast!"

With that, the three boys walked down to the Great Hall, leaving the oblivious fourth member in their group rubbing shampoo in his hair for the third time.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The sun was high up in the middle of the sky, shining brightly on the four boys who were messing about in the lake on the warm Saturday afternoon. Soon Remus and Peter trudged back to the grass where four towels had been strewn. A giggling group of girls were gathered a few metres away, pointing to where James and Sirius were in the water - topless.

James had spied the girls too, and jerked his head in that direction while grinning to Sirius.

"You've got yourself a fan club mate, well done."

Sirius' grin seemed a little forced however, as he waved in the general direction of the girls.

"Something wrong?" James picked up on Sirius facial expression straight away, and Sirius knew he wouldn't be able to hide it from James. Padfoot grimaced, unable to explain how he was feeling to James, but his best friend didn't need an explanation.

"It's Kayla isn't it?" James questioned, looking straight at Sirius.

"Yeah." Running his hand through his hair Sirius groaned, "Girls are so confusing, you can never tell what they're thinking. One minute they like you, next minute they're going out with someone else. They're just so bloody confusing."

James nodded, he knew what Sirius was talking about even though he hadn't experienced it himself He had never gotten the impression that Lily liked him, she always seem cool and distant to him, like she was in a different place to him.

"Well mate, until Kayla dumps Johnson there's nothing much you can do. You can keep trying to make her jealous, but if you go out with nearly every girl then she'll think you're a player. And if she finally does end up going out with you, she'll just think that she's another girl that you'll dump after a week. If you really want her mate, if you really want to go out with her, then you need to focus only on her." James said sincerely.

Sirius stared off into the distance for a minute, before he replied to James.

"I know mate, but when girls ask me out, if they're above fifth year then I say yes. I hate seeing girls cry, and knowing you're the one who made them cry makes you feel even worse. I know how it feels to be rejected by Kayla, so I just say yes to every girl who asks me. I stopped asking girls out two years ago, now I only say yes if they ask me. Then after a week or so I just tell them that I had a great time but I don't see it working out, and then we break up. That way they still got what they wanted, and I can still try and make Kayla jealous." Both the boys went silent for a few minutes, just wading around in the water until Sirius broke the silence. "Well mate I have to go, I've got a date with Gardener, the Ravenclaw seventh year."

Nodding, James walked out of the lake too, and the two of them made their way back to where Remus and Peter were sitting on their towels and chatting.

James sat down on the grass with the other two, as Sirius waved a goodbye to his friends and walked towards the buildings to get ready for his date.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Messing up his hair for the last time, Sirius marched out of his dormitory and towards the staircase which had just stopped moving. It was 6:55, five minutes before his date. He tried to make each date interesting, and today he was taking his date to the kitchens where a three course meal was prepared for them by the ever adoring elves. Yes, even the elves had fallen under Sirius' charm.

By the time he reached the Ravenclaw common room, it was 6:59. As two fourth year Ravenclaw girls were entering their common room, Sirius stopped them on their way to ask if they could let Jemima Gardener know that Sirius was waiting for her.

Nodding, blushing and giggling, the two girls somehow understood what Sirius was asking of them and they went off to complete their ever important task, given to them by none other than _the _Sirius Black.

Judging by the very short time it took Jemima to arrive, it would seem that she was eagerly waiting for his arrival, hovering near the common room doorway.

Graciously offering his harm, Sirius led Jemima to the kitchens, where it seemed she had never been. Her slightly confused face when Sirius was tickling the pear to enter the kitchens, quickly turned into one of surprise and awe.

Seeing the table up ahead, she gasped as she noticed the effort Sirius had put in. There was a mahogany table in near the side of the room, with a hand-stitched white table cloth, with intricate details subtly adding to the overall beauty. Two shining plates with origami swans as napkins were placed at opposite ends of the small table, making it intimate enough to be a date, but not too close for it to become awkward. A crystal goblet was placed on the side of either plates, just like the goblets that Jemima had seen important guests use when they visited Hogwarts. The goblets were filled three quarters of the way with something resembling champagne, but on closer inspection it turned out to just be butter beer charmed to look more elegant. There were a row of candles along the side, providing a dimly lit atmosphere which made the mood a little more romantic.

Sirius sauntered forward ahead of Jemima to hold the chair out for her, as she sat down and admired the spread. Sirius too sat down and the two of them engaged in some friendly conversation before a house elf appeared and delivered the first course.

The food was following a Mediterranean theme with an entree of seafood pasta. It was a small but delectable meal, leading onto the main course of lemon garlic lamb chops with minted couscous.

It was around 8:15 by the Sirius and Jemima finished their dessert of Tiramisu, and they laid down their napkins on the table before they thanked the house elves for the exquisite meal. They walked back to the Ravenclaw together, as Sirius and Jemima spoke about the upcoming quiddich match, as Jemima was the keeper on the Ravenclaw quiddich team.

After about five minutes of walking the two of them had reached the entrance to the common room and they talked for a few minutes as others would walk past them once in a while, the curfew was imminent.

"I had a great night Jemima, thank you for being the reason why." Sirius smiled charmingly at the reddening Jemima, as she tucked her auburn hair behind her ear.

"Thank you too Sirius, I had an amazing time, you really are good at this!"

At this, Sirius chuckled before saying, "I'm not sure why we weren't friends before tonight, I thought I knew most of the seventh years." Frowning, Sirius continued, "Well at least I had the pleasure of meeting you tonight, have a good night."

Kissing Jemima gently on the cheek, Sirius leant back and ambled back to his common room. Before he had taken many steps however, he heard a voice call his name.

"Yes?" He turned around to see Jemima standing where he left her.

"You're different than I thought you would be Sirius, different to what everyone says. When people found out I was going on a date with you, they were quick to give me advice, and more so to caution me against going out with Sirius Black. Why is that?" Jemima questioned, tilting her head a little.

Smirking in an amused way, Sirius replied, "Well girls who have been dumped don't seem to say the best things about their ex-boyfriends. But yeah, I am different to what everyone thinks, I guess. I don't try to act different, I just don't think people know what I am really like."

"Does anyone?"

This seemed to stump Sirius, as he racked his brains to find an adequate answer. "Yes." He replied after much consideration. "Yes, I think some people do."

Smiling, Jemima asked, "What about the girl? The one you like? Does she know?"

"Who are you talking about?" Startled, Sirius looked up towards Jemima.

"Even though you took me out on this date, I know there is someone else Sirius. I can tell by the way you act. But it's okay, we've only really just met – you don't need to tell me. Well good luck with whoever it is, I'm sure she'll discover the real Sirius Black, and I'm sure she'll love him."

Sirius smiled a genuine smile as he turned around to head back to his common room.

"Thanks Jemima. I hope she does too."

**A/N: Please leave a review if you have a comment or a suggestion for the next chapter! **

**I prefer a more sensitive Sirius, sorry if you wanted him to be a player!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**A/N: The only reason this was uploaded was because **_Blue Luver5000_** asked me to write a chapter about the Giant Squid, and it was a little tricky to write. I am so sorry if you don't like this chapter, because I most certainly do not. **

**If anyone else has suggestions of what I should write in the next chapter, leave a review! I promise it will be better than this chapter! :\**

*POINT OF VIEW OF THE GIANT SQUID IN THE LAKE*

Large grey clouds covered up the sky, making the atmosphere much gloomier than it should have been at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. With the clouds came the rain, and the rain was much worse.

Rain meant that none of the students would come outside, and if they did – they would go back inside after a few minutes. Sitting in the Black Lake for all of your life isn't as easy as it sounds. Sure, I don't have to go to classes, or have teachers, or detentions. But I also don't have friends. All of the merpeople seem to think that I am some sort of threat, the fish swim away in fear that I will eat them, and the little turtle that often glides past just ignores me.

It may be simple being a squid, but it sure is boring.

Then again, I do have a few friends, well if friend is the correct word for it. I think they are my best friends, as I have none others to compare them with. Though sometimes I don't think they consider me as one of their best friends, after all who would want to be best friends with the giant squid in the lake?

What's that? ...No one? Yeah, I know.

There are these four boys who come visit me every now and then, they play in the water with me and they just talk to me. I like them.

James and Sirius often play with me in the water, but Remus talks to me from the land. I don't think he likes water very much, actually I don't know if he can swim. But he talks to me anyway, he tells me his secrets and makes me feel included. He says that he is a dangerous person, yet he always says the word person strangely, like he doesn't really believe it. I wonder what is making him unhappy, but I don't want to ask. He might get mad and stop being friends with me! Then I'll only have three friends left!

Peter doesn't talk to me very much when the other boys are around, but sometimes he will come by himself to have a chat, when he is feeling bored or excluded. He tells me a lot of things too; he says that sometimes the other three boys are best friends with each other, but he doesn't always fit in. He usually doesn't mind much but sometimes it really gets on his nerves. I am glad that he tells me these things though, because no one else comes and talks to me by themself. It makes me happy that he trusts me, and that he wants to be my friend!

Yet on rainy days like these, no one comes out to see me. The other children either don't know or don't care. There is one girl though – she fell out of her boat on the first day of school. She screamed and kicked, but no one could help her, so instead I gently pushed her back in the boat. I think she remembers me though, because sometimes when she goes for walks, she throws the bread into the lake for me to eat. Still, she's no Peter!

There is another girl though, apparently she said she would date me? I have no idea what she actually said, but I heard Sirius saying to James that some girl called Lily would rather date me than him. I don't know if that was a joke or not, but it sure feels nice being appreciated. It may be rather odd for me to date a human though. Do squids usually date humans?

Wait.

Do squids usually date? We would probably make an odd couple, but I guess we could work something out if she really wanted to go out with me. I mean, it's not every day that girls express their love for me. Maybe now that Lily has done it, then a whole group of other girls will follow in her steps? Maybe I have a fan club at Hogwarts! I can see the headlines in the Daily Prophet already, 'FAN CLUB EXPRESSES LOVE FOR GIANT SQUID." That sure would make my daddy proud.

I've never actually spoken to Lily though. Who knows what she is like, maybe she's the smartest witch on the planet! Maybe she's the most beautiful witch on the planet! Maybe she would break my heart and leave me. Oh no, I could never take that risk. I guess I shouldn't date her then, I don't want to end up getting hurt. Well now that I've made my decision I should probably inform her of it, or she may still be wondering if we could be an item.

Oh poor girl, she'll be crushed when I tell her – I'll try and be as nice as I can, and maybe she won't take it too hard.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

After spreading my tentacles out and relaxing in the luke warm water, I thought up ways of which I should break the news to Lily. I thought about coming to her window – but that might scare her. I thought about writing her a letter – but I don't know how to write. I thought about singing to her – but that would just be damn right hilarious and not nearly sincere enough. In the end I just decided that I would talk to Lily, face to face.

The breeze had become slightly chilly and sunset was fast approaching, so I decided I had better talk to Lily today. That meant one less sleepless night of hers, waiting for me to make a move.

Suddenly an embarrassing thought hit me.

Was I overreacting? Does she really care about going out with me? All she said was that she would prefer to go out with me rather than James.

Hm, that sounds pretty legitimate to me.

Okay who am I kidding, she was basically asking me out!

I bet the whole thing was a set up! I bet she told Sirius to say that to James when I was in the vicinity and could hear, and therefore I knew that she liked me. Sneaky little witch!

In the distance I see someone walking towards the lake that I have spent my entire life in, but I can only see the outline of the person. Whoever it was seemed to be walking towards me or just the lake in general, so I decide to get back under the surface of the water so I don't scare whoever it is. This is pretty much what I do whenever anyone comes nearby, because something about there being a giant squid watching their every move seems to unnerve them a little bit. I don't really know why, but whatever.

Settling under the water, I tried to see who it was that had taken a seat on the grassy bank of the lake, but the water was a little too murky for that. I didn't have to wait long though, because soon someone was calling my name.

"Squid?" Yes. My name is squid, stop looking at me like that. So my parents weren't very original – so what?

I slowly rose my head out of the water and saw Peter smiling at me.

"How have you been Squid?"

Glad that Peter had come to keep me company I replied quickly,

"Not bad, just been thinking. How about you?"

We chatted for another 15 minutes or so, before Peter had to go to detention. Just before he left however, I asked him if he could bring Lily out here because I wanted to speak to her.

If Peter found my request odd, he didn't show it, but instead he nodded and made his way back to the castle. I only had to wait another 10 minutes before I spied a beautiful girl walking towards my lake. She certainly wasn't anything like I imagined her to be – was I making a mistake in rejecting her? Before I let this thought plague my mind further, I quickly shook it out of my head to face Lily.

Pushing a strand of auburn hair out of her face she spoke to me.

"Uh ... hi?"

"Sup dude?" If I was going to talk to her, I may as well make a cool first impression.

She seemed slightly taken aback by my ultra cool reply and hesitated before she said,

"Nothing really. Um, Peter said you wanted to speak to me?"

I didn't really know why she was so hesitant whilst talking to me; maybe I just have that effect on girls? But I wouldn't know, I've never spoken to a girl before.

"Yeah man, I totes told Pete-dawg that I wanted to talk to ya." Pfft, and she thinks I don't know how to be cool? Huh. "Fo-shizzle." I didn't know if the first bit was enough, so I tagged on the end just to sound cooler.

"Oh...okay. So what did you need to talk to me about?' She probably sensed that this conversation might take a little while because she found a soft spot on the grass and made herself comfortable.

Taking a deep breath, I began.

"Well Lily, I heard a rumour that you had your eye on a certain someone. Or something? Well I am just trying to tell you that unfortunately it just won't work. I'm sorry that it couldn't work out, but it's best for you to know now, and hear it from me and not someone else. Believe me – if it could work then I would try my best to make it work, but I just don't think it will. I'm sorry Lily, I hope you will find happiness with someone else. It will probably be best if we don't ever speak again, it might be easier for you. So goodbye Lily, and good luck."

With that mighty impressive speech, I went back under the surface of the water and hoped she wasn't taking it too hard. Just before I went under the water though, I had sneaked a look at Lily's face. Her expression was a mixture between confusion, amusement, apprehensiveness and complete mind boggled-ness.

Poor girl, hopefully she'll find someone else one day. From what I know – James is crazy about her. Who knows, maybe they'll end up together?

I won't be going anywhere anytime soon, so I guess I'll just wait and see.

**A/N: I'm very sorry if this chapter wasn't up to scratch, write me a review that I don't deserve anyway! And review with suggestions for future chapters!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**A/N: Remember that these chapters aren't necessarily in chronological order - and in this chapter Lily and James are friends, not quite in a relationship though. This chapter is during the Christmas break, and it is at Lily's house! Please leave me a review, and give me suggestions of what to write about :)**

"Lily come downstairs honey, dinner is ready!"

The sound of her mother's voice reached Lily as she sat on the ledge next to the window sill, rugged up in a blanket and a novel. Her empty cup of what used to be hot chocolate was placed in front of her, the remains of the chocolate in a swirl at the bottom of her cup. A flake of snow settled upon the window as the rest of it gathered on top of houses, trees, footpaths and Christmas decorations. The flashing lights of the decorations winked at Lily from under a layer of snow, the gentle breeze sweeping the snow off the top of the trees, only to be replaced by more snow seconds later.

Carefully folding up her blanket and placing her book on her bedside table, Lily pulled on a warm sweater and made her way downstairs, the empty cup of hot chocolate as forgotten as the snowflake on the window.

Mr Evans walked into the dining room and placed a kiss on his wife's cheek,

"Dinner smells delicious Sue!" With a smile at his two daughters sitting on either side of the table he asked, "How has your day been girls? What have you two been up to?"

"Well I picked out my outfit for Samantha's New Year's party. But Mum, could I borrow your silver necklace? The one with the beads?"

Putting the salad dish back on the table, Sue smiled and said,

"Yes of course you may. Will Vernon be picking you up Petunia?"

"Yes, and he's bringing me back home too."

The mention of Vernon Dursley brought mixed reactions from the family. Mr Evans looked up straight away, frowning at the amount of time his daughter has been spending with the boy, whereas Lily just rolls her eyes as she thinks about the oaf that is her sister's boyfriend.

The family engaged in light conversation, laughter filling the room as the two sisters avoided eye contact, only being civil to one another since it was Christmas.

"How about you Lily? Any boys we should know about?" Sue laughed at the expression on her daughter's face when she voiced the question, and the choking noise which was emitted from her husband as he heard it.

"Lily is much too young to have a boyfriend!" Mr Evans had firmly decided.

"Oh shush David, let Lily answer the question." Laughing, Sue awaited her daughter's response.

"I'm 17 Dad, that is not too young to have a boyfriend!" Looking at the outraged expression on her father's face, she hastily continued, "But no, I do not have a boyfriend."

Mr Evans relaxed somewhat and basked in the knowledge that at least one of his daughters didn't have a boyfriend. At least he was the main male figure in one of his daughter's lives. These thoughts didn't last long as the doorbell chimed, interrupting the calm and peaceful atmosphere in the dining room. Petunia was already getting herself a glass of water from the kitchen went to see who was at the door. The family wasn't expecting any visitors, but it was an unspoken rule to turn people down on Christmas.

Slowly turning the knob, Petunia pulled the front door open. In front of her stood a well built boy in his late teens, with black hair and a charming smile. He seemed to be holding a package in his hands, but he kept that out of view as he engaged in friendly conversation with Petunia. After a few minutes of fluttering her eyelashes and making subtle hints, Petunia started to wonder why this gorgeous boy was on her doorstep anyway. Just as she was about to ask this question, the unknown boy beat her to it.

"As flattered as I am by your company... Petunia, was it?" An encouraging nod from the girl in question was all he needed to continue, "I was actually here to enquire whether Lily was home. Would she be able to spare a minute to talk to me?"

Instantly Petunia's facial expression went from flirtatious and friendly to hesitant and apprehensive.

"Lily? How do you know Lily? ...Are you from her school?"

Grinning, the boy seemed to be glad she had placed him so quickly.

"Yes! Yes, Lily and I go to school together! Is she home?"

A strange looked crossed Petunia's face and the boy wondered if had said the wrong thing. He was happy that she had been able to tell where he was from, and that he was not a threat, yet this wasn't exactly the response he was looking for. Petunia seemed to come to a decision, as her face cleared of any previous expression and she slammed the door in the boy's face.

Taking a deep breath, she ambled her way back to the kitchen table.

"Who was that, darling?" Her mother looked up at Petunia as she re-entered the room.

Suddenly the doorbell rung again, causing Sue to frown as she asked her daughter,

"Is that the same person? Why did you leave them at the door Petunia, that's not very good manners?"

Annoyance crossed her face as Petunia picked up her fork and moodily stabbed at random bits of cabbage. Sue took this as an act of defiance and walked over to the door herself, leaving a tense atmosphere where the rest of her family continued to eat their dinner. She returned a moment later, only to be followed by the same boy that Petunia had slammed the door on.

"Lily dear, this lovely boy says he's a friend of yours from school!"

Looking up from her dinner plate, Lily was shocked to see none other than James Potter standing in her dining room.

"James! What are you doing here?"

Grinning like a fool, he replied,

"Merry Christmas Lil! I came to wish you a Merry Christmas and to deliver our present! I was originally going to send it by owl, but my owl is currently somewhere across the Atlantic Ocean, so I figured this was more practical!" James pulled out an object from his pocket; the item wrapped in silver wrapping paper with a thin ribbon holding it together. He placed it in Lily's hand and watched for reaction.

"Thank you James! Merry Christmas to you too! And the gift was really unnecessary, I didn't know you were coming so I don't have anything for you."

This answer didn't seem to affect James in the slightest, as his only response was to urge her to open the present. He waited eagerly to see whether she liked it or not, but he was quite sure she would. After all his mother came with him to pick the present, and she certainly had better taste in jewellery than he did.

After gently removing the last section of the wrapping paper Lily sucked in a breath, staring in awe at the magnificent item in her palm. It was a jade green brooch with silver studded diamonds on the left side. It was quite a modern looking brooch however, not one which would be found on anyone over the age of twenty. Lily seemed to be lost for words, the gift was beautiful and must have been extremely expensive. Lily's family had never had money to just throw around, they had a sufficient amount to live and to live well, but they weren't rich. The present seemed to like gold in her hands, as she placed it back on the box and rushed to give James a big hug.

Lily drew back from the hug ever so slightly, yet James' arms were still wrapped around her body. A clearing of the throat by Mr Evans was all James needed to let Lily out of his embrace, and smile at her evidently positive response to his gift.

Meanwhile Mrs Evans had picked up the brooch and was admiring it from her seat, where Petunia was trying to glance out of the corner of her eye, without it being obvious what she was doing.

"Really James, thank you so much!" Lily seemed so taken aback by the gift that she didn't know how to thank him.

"Have you had dinner yet James, because you would be welcome to join us?" Lily's mother said.

"Well both my parents received an urgent call from work so I've been at a friend's house, but if I wouldn't be imposing then I would it love to join you." James glanced at Lily as he said this, just to check that he wasn't outstaying his welcome.

A smile from Lily and two minutes later, James was sitting at the table with a full plate ahead of him.

"So James, tell us about yourself!" Sue seemed to be taking a great interest in James, but James simply smiled and began to describe some of the details of his life.

"Well, I am seventeen and I go to Hogwarts with Lily. I work with Lily constantly this year, as I am Head Boy, so that's pretty much how we became friends. My parents are aurors, so their job is similar to the... police? That's what Lily had told me anyway, so the fight the dark wizards in an effort to make the wizarding community a safer place."

Across the table Petunia threw her napkin down and picked up her plate and left the room saying,

"I'm done here. I'm going to go call Vernon now."

Sue seemed embarrassed at her daughter's childish antics, but James was more concerned about the hurt expression on his friend's face as her sister left the table.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Well thank you for the meal Mr and Mr Evans, it was delicious! But I really should get back to my friend's house now, they'll be wondering where I went!" James laughed as Sue dragged James into a motherly embrace and shook hands with Mr Evans in a more formal fashion.

Lily walked him to the door, the two of them chatting amicably.

"Well thank you for the present James, I know I've said it many times already but I mean it. I'm sorry for the way my sister behaved, but I have been meaning to ask you – how do you know where I live?"

Winking conspiratorially, James grinned while saying,

"That's for me to know and you to never find out!" Seeing the look on Lily's face he hastened to add on, "Just kidding! Remus told me, because he knew since he came to your place to work on that project with you in fifth year. Well I had a great night Lily, thanks for letting me stay for dinner! I guess I'll see you back at school then."

"You're welcome! Yeah, I'll see you after the holidays!" Placing a light kiss on James' cheek, she closed the door before seeing the awestruck look on James' face, his hand touching his cheek where her lips had been.

Walking upstairs, she took a deep breath and pushed open Petunia's bedroom door.

"Look Petunia, I get it, you hate me. But that gives you no right to be so rude in front of guests. Whenever your friends come over I don't act like the bitch you were being. Whatever problems we have is between us, and I'll thank you not to bring them up again in front of guests."

Slamming the door behind her, Lily stormed downstairs to the kitchen where she knew her mother would be waiting for her.

Just as she expected, Sue was sitting on the bar stool behind the kitchen counter, sipping a glass of water. As Lily entered the room her mother's expression brightened and she started shooting out the questions.

"Isn't he such a charming boy Lil? Is he your boyfriend? Do you like him? And isn't that the same guy who you used to hate just last year? What happened? Wasn't that brooch so gorgeous? Does he have a girlfriend?"

"Mum, stop!" Lily laughed at her mother's antics. "Yes, he can be charming when he wants to be. Yes I used to hate him last year, and yes he changed. Yes the brooch is gorgeous...and I forgot the last question. Oh wait I got it! No he doesn't have a girlfriend."

"You missed one! Do you like him?"

Lily took a moment to think about it, because it was a touch question for her to answer. A question she didn't think she knew the answer to.

"I don't think so. Well I don't know for sure, we are good friends – but not more than that. He can be a sweet guy when he wants to be, but other times he can act like a jerk. He's a little confusing, because he's completely different to the James Potter that he was last year. I have no idea how I feel about him."

Lily's mother nodded knowingly as she rinsed her glass,

"I see. Well I'm off to bed now honey, the night was a blast! Just think over the James situation though, because change can be good. I guess it just comes down to whether he has changed for the better, and if the change is going to last. Anyway, good night!"

Lily was left in the room by herself to ponder over the dilemma which was James Potter. He had changed, so maybe he deserved a chance? But who was to say he wouldn't change back?

**A/N: Please leave me a review of what you thought!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**A/N: Thank you to those who have subscribed and reviewed :) I didn't really have a plan for this chapter, I just made it up as I went along. Updates may have more of a gap from now, since homework will soon be piling up – sorry! **

**Please review guys, and leave me a suggestion on what the next chapter should be about – I'm running out of ideas :\**

STORY TIME:

"Mr Potter and Mr Black, kindly put your wands away and wait outside the classroom." Professor Mcgonagall hissed as she glared at the two boys.

They both placed their wands on the desk and walked sheepishly outside of the classroom, the eyes of the rest of the class constantly trailing them. Remus Lupin sat at the back of the class next to the two recently vacated seats with his friend Peter Pettigrew, having a laugh at the expense of their two best friends. The boys had been caught out yet another time while they attempted to change their bookcases into animals and the teacher just wasn't having it.

"Boys." Professor Mcgonagall stepped out of the classroom, seething with rage. "Both of you are nearly seventeen - act your age for goodness sake. The choosing of the Head Boy isn't simply picking a name out of a hat Mr Potter, a lot of thought has gone into this process. Yet if you don't believe you are capable of setting a proper example for the rest of your peers, then you may find yourself stripped of your responsibilities. Both of you will receive two detentions and I hope the message will finally sink in."

Professor Mcgonagall paused as she put one hand on the doorknob to enter her classroom and turned back around.

"You are no longer the 11 year old boys that you were when you entered this castle. And the world around you isn't the same anymore either. Both of you are extremely talented, but your talent may be more helpful in the future if you put it to better use." For a moment Professor Mcgonagall seemed more like a tired, ageing woman rather than a stern transfiguration professor. As suddenly as the change came, it was gone, and she walked back into her classroom as the chatter immediately ceased.

Still outside of the room, Sirius turned to his best friend and grinned.

"She said we were 'extremely talented', I told you Minnie loves us on the inside!"

James half smiled at his friend's antics and gave the high five that Sirius had been holding his hand up for, but his mind was elsewhere. What Professor Mcgonagall told him was plaguing his mind, because the truth of her words was too strong to ignore.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The sun had set hours ago, yet the four boys who called themselves 'The Marauders' were still pigging out in the kitchen.

Scratch that.

Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew were pigging out in the kitchen, and James Potter and Remus Lupin had been dragged along because unfortunately they picked the wrong people to become friends with. A muffled sound was emitted from Sirius' mouth, but as always – none of his friends sitting right beside him even looked up. Frustrated, Sirius tapped James on the shoulder and tried to communicate whatever it was he had been saying not 10 seconds ago.

James' brows furrowed in confusion as he began the impossible task of figuring out what his friend just said to him.

Sighing, Remus decided to make the job easier and cut the pointless conversation to an end.

"He said: Prongs didn't you say you couldn't hang out with us because you had some meeting?"

"OH MERLIN, NOT AGAIN!"

It was the third meeting that James had found himself completely forgetting about and it was only his first month back from Christmas. As he sprinted towards Professor Dumbledore's office James contemplated the idea of summoning his broom and flying there instead, but he could only spot one flaw in the plan.

The summoning charm just wasn't his forte.

Finally ending the major debate which was raging inside of his head, he decided to continue running and just hoped he didn't crash into anything or anyone. He spotted the gargoyles that guarded the Headmaster's office and skidded to a halt just 14 centimetres before a possibly extremely painful crash.

"Lemon drops." James confidently strode forward before he realised that the gargoyle's hadn't let him through, and he had just walked into a solid wall.

He could have sworn the gargoyle sniggered at him, but he couldn't be sure.

"Contrary to popular belief, Professor Dumbledore does not select his password depending on his favourite sweets. But that is a good idea, I'll mention it to him."

"Never tickle a sleeping dragon." James spun around at the sound of another's voice, and found himself facing Lily Evans.

He wondered why she would be saying such a random statement, but instead of making her feel embarrassed he decided to just go with it.

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind next time I... happen to approach a sleeping dragon."

Lily raised one eyebrow and tilted her head a little to the left.

"You're a strange person James. Anyway, I wasn't talking to you – that's just the password for the gargoyles." She said.

After James attempted to forget the embarrassing situation that had just happened, he wondered why Lily wasn't in the Headmaster's office already.

"Wait Lily, how come you're late to the meeting?"

Lily frowned and checked her watch.

" We're not late, the meeting only starts in another two minutes." She stated. "You didn't think you were late and run here again did you? Like last time?"

"Me...run? Pfft, no." James reddened slightly as he turned away and tried to focus greatly on the spider that was climbing up the wall.

'_Damn it,_' he cringed on the inside.

By the time he realised that Lily was no longer standing beside him, she already seated herself in a chair opposite the Headmaster, as they both were observing how long it would take James to realise he was alone. Taking in the situation calmly, James strutted over to take the chair beside Lily.

"I was just checking to make sure the paint on the wall wasn't chipping." Glancing over at Professor Dumbledore he added, "It's not."

"Thank you for that evaluation Mr Potter, may we begin this meeting now?"

James nodded his approval before relaxing into the back of the extremely comfortable chair he was seated in.

"Tonight is just a short meeting, the three of us will be meeting again next week to discuss details, but tonight is just to inform you of what is happening. The staff and I have been thinking of holding a ball for the seventh years. It will be an opportunity for the seventh year students to relax and enjoy their last year of Hogwarts before the work sets in and the NEWTs begin. If the feedback is positive, we may look into making it an annual event – but for now we just want your opinion."

Lily sat forward in her chair and engaged in a conversation to express her enthusiasm while James sat and wondered if Lily would agree to go with him. It was a long shot, but he was feeling slightly more positive considering that he and Lily were actually friends this year, not like all the other years.

"James, do you believe we should go through with this idea?" Professor Dumbledore and Lily were both staring at him, so James picked the answer he knew would appease Lily.

"Of course Professor Dumbledore, I'm sure our peers will love it."

James was rewarded with a smile from Lily and a nod from Dumbledore and he settled back into his seat. As the short meeting drew to a close, Lily stood by the door to wait for James and walk back to the Head's common room.

"I'll be out in just a minute Lily." She nodded and exited the room, leaving James free to talk to the Headmaster.

"Professor, just a quick question: is there some sort of rule where the Head boy and girl are required to attend all functions as a couple?"

Professor Dumbledore chuckled to himself for a moment before replying to James.

"Nice try Mr Potter, but as far as I know – no such rule exists. But you already seem to be pretty good friends, I'm sure you could just ask Miss Evans anyway!" He said, eyes twinkling all the while.

"Well it was worth a try. I might just do that Professor, but good night."

James walked out of the Headmaster's office to see Lily waiting for him, and he thought back to what Professor Dumbledore said to him. They were actually very friendly nowadays, so his chance had never been better. Throwing all doubts away, James turned to Lily and asked what was on his mind.

"Will you go the ball with me Lily? Wait- I know you don't want to go out with me or anything, and I know one of the conditions of you accepting the Head Girl position was if I promised not to ask you out ever again. So what I'm trying to ask, is will you go to the ball with me as friends?"

He held his breath, expecting Lily to ponder over this for a moment or two before actually coming to a decision. What he didn't expect however, was Lily's prompt response.

"As friends? Sure thing. I accept your offer to go the ball with you as friends, and I look forward to it James. Thank you for asking me. Well, good night then."

"Yeah... good night." A startled James replied, as he stood and tried to figure out what just happened.

She said yes.

Before he could stop himself, James knocked on Lily's door. Lily appeared a few seconds later, dressed in a sleeping gown and slippers.

"Woah, you got dressed really fast." Seeing Lily's amused expression, James hurried to get to the point. "So I just wanted to make sure- did you actually say yes to going to the ball with me? As friends?"

"Yes James, I did. Could I get some sleep now, I'm actually really tired?"

Elated with the possibility of winning over Lily Evans in the future, James smiled and said goodnight.

Forgetting about going into his own dormitory, James stepped out of the common room and into the dark corridor. Lighting the tip of his wand, he raced to the Gryffindor common room and up the staircase into the 7th year boys' room.

Flicking the switch filling the room with light, James watched his three best friends stir slowly to consciousness.

"SHE SAID YES!"

**A/N: Thank you for sticking with me, please leave a review and possibly some ideas for the next chapter! **


	7. Chapter 7

_**Disclaimer**_**: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_**A/N**_**: The prompts for this chapter were: Dinosaurs and Chocolate! Courtesy of: **ushallneverknow **So thank you for giving me a topic and for your great review! And to answer your question, I have not yet decided when I will upload the chapter about Lily and James getting together. It really depends on what you readers want. So please review and let me know when you want it!**

The entrance to the dormitory of the 7th year Gryffindor boys opened noiselessly as James Potter slid through it. Closing the door behind him, James pointed his wand at the closed curtains and they sprang open, sunshine spilling into the room. The bed at the far end was empty; that was James' spare bed in case he would like to spend the night in the Gryffindor dorms. Out of the three that were occupied, the person in the middle bed began to stir. Deciding to speed up the situation, James grabbed the blankets and jerked them back.

"Blimey Prongs, didn't need to give me a heart attack!" Sirius leapt out of his bed in an instant and swung a fist at his best friend, who ducked his head and chuckled.

"I'm sorry my dashing looks give you heart failures mate, but there's really nothing I can do about it!"

Sirius clambered out of his bed, dressed only in his quiddich training shorts – a sight which would've given most of the female population in Hogwarts something to sigh about.

"Woah." Sirius froze in steps and turned to face James. "Woah." He repeated.

"Oh Merlin, what now?"

"I think this is the first time that Pete and I woke up before Remus did..."

Silence dawned on the three boys as they tried to remember any incidents in which either Sirius or Peter had woken up before Remus had. Surprisingly, none came to mind.

Peter spoke up as he got out of his bed,

"I think you're right mate. This calls for a celebratory prank!"

With grins on their faces and pranks on their mind, the three boys gathered around James' spare bed and discussed ideas. As usual; tackling, hexing and yelling ensued.

"SHUT UP!" James stood up as his friends stopped pummelling each other. "You'll wake Moony up."

Sirius and Peter had the decency to look ashamed, before Sirius threw his pillow at Peter and the truce was forgotten. James sighed, knowing there was nothing he could do about his friends, so instead he focussed his thoughts on the friend that was surprisingly still asleep.

"Oh who cares, I'm just going to do it. Not like anyone wants to help." He muttered as he walked over to where Remus lay. Pulling out his wand, he whispered something under his breath and walked back to where he sat previously.

"Padfoot! Do something that makes a loud noise!"

Sirius seemed confused, but the idea of having permission to make loud noises was enough enticement for him to pull out his wand and wave it erratically. Instantly, a noise akin to one of an explosion rang through the dormitory, leaving James glad that they had decided to put up a silencing charm on their door in third year; it would simply not do for others to hear what was happening inside.

As James had hoped and predicted, Remus awoke with a start. As he sat up, three buckets emptied themselves upon him. One was filled with water, the next with honey, and the last with mustard.

"You bloody gits! You ruined Snuggy!"

For the second time that morning, all four boys were completely silent. It seemed to Remus as though he had said something wrong, as he tried to backtrack. Unfortunately for him, his friends had heard too much.

"Snuggy? I don't think I know a Snuggy. That's odd. Do you Padfoot?" James said innocently to the others.

"No Prongsy, I don't believe I do. How about you Wormtail? Have you met this elusive Snuggy?" Sirius replied, a grin making its way across his face.

Understanding what was going on, Peter joined in too,

"Come to think of it... I don't think I have either! Care to introduce us Remus, my dear friend?"

Spluttering and mumbling to himself, Remus tried to save his dignity while his three best friends were grinning at him like idiots, waiting for him to share his secret. He could lie, but they would be able to tell. He sat there for a few moments, trying to think of a way to get out of this mess.

However Sirius had other plans. Unable to sit and wait, he pulled out his wand and summoned the object that was hidden under Remus' bed cover.

Remus reached out his arm to grab the flying object but was too slow, it had already landed in Sirius' lap. James, Peter and Sirius took one look at it and burst out in laughter.

"Moony... you sleep... with a... toy!" James managed to squeeze out in between guffaws.

The blushing and incoherence of Remus was enough of a response to the boys, and they began to laugh all over again.

"Shut up guys! You've all done embarrassing things too!"

The three boys rolling on the ground seemed not to hear this, as they were too busy trying to control their laughter. So with one last glare, Remus got up and walked to the bathroom hoping to get the mustard and honey out his hair.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Breakfast at the Great Hall everyday was quite a noisy affair, and that morning was no exception. James and Sirius beside each other and Peter sat opposite to them. Remus was still up in the dormitory, most likely still showering.

However the three boys that were at breakfast were certainly making the most of it, stuffing their faces with whatever food was in a metre radius.

"I hope you don't eat like that on dates, otherwise you would never get girls!" Lily Evans commented as she sat herself next to Alice.

"Don't worry darling, when we're on dates we turn on the charm! Well not me, my charm is always turned on." With a suggestive wink at Lily, Sirius turned back to his fourth piece of toast.

"If you say so. Where's the fourth member of your posse anyway?" Alice asked.

James grinned before saying,

"Probably making out with Snuggy or something like that!"

Alice and Lily exchanged a glance.

"Who's Snuggy?" Alice may have been the one to ask, but the question was on both of their minds.

"His toy dinosaur! He sleeps with Snuggy every night!" Peter burst out laughing.

Giggling erupted from the two girls as Lily asked,

"Are you for real? He seriously sleeps with a toy dinosaur? Oh my goodness that is so cute!" As she glanced to the entrance of the Great Hall she saw Remus walking towards them. "Guys! Stop laughing, Remus is coming!"

The five of them immediately shut up and tried to hold in their laughter. James seemed most in control, so he greeted Remus as he sat down next to Lily.

"Hey mate, have a good shower?" The only response to this question was a glare from Remus, so Lily decided to take a stab at conversation.

"Good morning Remus, how are you?"

Remus smiled at Lily before replying,

"I'm fine thank you Lily, how are you?"

"Not too bad myself!" Here she paused for a moment, trying to keep a straight face before she kept talking. "So the boys were telling us about your new friend. Or old friend, depends which way you look at the situation."

Remus tilted his head slightly to the left,

"Which friend are you talking about?"

Seeing that Lily seemed fit to burst with laughter, Alice decided to take over.

"Someone called ... Snuggy, was it?"A few giggles escaped her lips as she saw Remus' facial expression and hurriedly put on an 'innocently inquisitive' face.

Remus however didn't have as much control over his facial expression, as he was steadily getting to a deeper shade of red, his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. He turned slightly to face his three supposedly "best friends" and glared at them.

"You told them about Snuggy?" He hissed.

"Well to be fair, you never told us not to!" Sirius was quick to point out.

"You're all a bunch of gits, you know that? Well you started this, and I'm certainly not backing down." He turned in his seat again, this time to face Lily and Alice. "Did you happen to know what went down last Christmas Party?"

A strangled noise escaped from Sirius' throat, as he desperately tried to kick Remus under the table.

"Everyone was under the impression that Sirius here went off with another girl. Truth is, after a few bottles of firewhiskey he got a little too excited when he saw a mouse, and he wet his pants. So he had to go back to the dormitory and put on a new pair!"

Lily and Alice's facial expressions went from astonished to highly entertained as they succumbed to a fit of giggles. Sirius, on the other hand, seemed to sink so low in his seat that he fell off the bench entirely and onto the ground. He stood up and sat back in his seat, but Remus wasn't finished yet.

"And James. That mark on his left knee that he says is a birth mark? – It's not. The first time he got on a broom stick he flew straight into tree and he was too scared to get down so he kept clinging onto the branch. His dad finally convinced him to let go, but all he did was fall onto the branch below and hurt his knee.

And don't even get me started on Pete. He didn't even know how babies were made until fifth year! I'm not sure how he managed that, considering he lives in the same dorm as Sirius... Still that's beside the point! They're all idiots too, so don't judge me."

The end of the rant was his cue to leave, as Remus got up from the bench and strode purposefully out of the Great Hall.

Before returning for a moment to grab a few pieces of toast, because he hadn't had breakfast yet.

Then he left.

Lily and Alice were too caught up in laughing themselves silly that they didn't realise that the boys were red in the face and ashamed.

Peter leaned in and whispered to Sirius and James,

"Guys, I don't think Moony wanted us to tell anyone about his... friend."

"Yeah, maybe we shouldn't have told the girls. I think Remus is actually mad at us this time. And he rarely ever gets mad! No matter what we pull!" James said, sighing softly.

"I KNOW WHAT WE SHOULD DO!" Sirius yelled suddenly, for no apparent reason.

James cringed and rubbed his ears before replying.

"Merlin Padfoot what was the need to yell that?"

"Shut up Prongs. Anyway I know what we should do to make Remus happy again! We'll give him what he loves the most!" Sirius exclaimed triumphantly, only to have James and Peter stare back at him blankly. "Chocolate, guys. Honestly, what's with you two today?"

"What's- what's with us? Oh I'm not even going to bother having this conversation with you, Sirius. This would have to be like the fiftieth time!" James spluttered.

Sensing a disagreement coming along, Peter was quick to interject.

"Chocolate it is guys! Let's go to Honeydukes!"

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Two hours, many candies and lots of slip ups with an invisibility cloak later, James, Sirius and Peter arrived back at the Gryffindor common room. After being allowed entry they searched high and low for Remus but couldn't find him. Deciding that he must be in the dormitory, the three boys trekked up the stairs and gathered outside the dormitory door to go over their plan of action.

This done, James pushed the door open to see Remus at the desk, a notebook and pen in hand. He looked up at the sound of the opening door, and grimaced as he saw his friends.

"Moony old boy! We're sorry for telling the girls about Snuggy, mate. We know we shouldn't have told them, but we made them promise not to tell anyone else – and they love you so the wont go back on their word. And even better, we come bearing gifts!" Sirius said to Remus, down on his knees.

Once Sirius finished speaking, Peter and James stepped forward and placed all the chocolates that were in their arms down onto the table and stepped back. Remus raised an eyebrow and waved his wand over the gifts but nothing happened. Seeming satisfied with the outcome of his spell, Remus looked through the chocolates and smiled. He then placed all of the chocolates in his various cloak pockets, and walked towards the door.

"Thanks boys! You know I wasn't really mad? I was just pretending to be, because I knew you would try make it up to me by giving me gifts. That's what you always do, it's getting pretty predictable! Bt anyway, thanks for the chocolates!" Grinning, Remus opened the dormitory door and walked out.

"Darn it! He double crossed us! That double crossing... double crosser!" Sirius yelled as soon as Remus closed the door.

"Glad to know your vocabulary has grown since first year Padfoot, but we have more important matters to be dealing with. Like going down to lunch?" James replied and Peter nodded in agreement.

"Lunch? No! We must prank Remus! He double crossed us... remember? We need to prank him again!" Sirius exclaimed, shocked that his friends weren't on the same page as him.

"I'm not pranking Moony again! Not today anyway. If you don't remember, we _just_ pranked him this morning. And what happened? He gained from it. So sorry mate, you're on your own for this one." Peter calmly told Sirius.

And with that, James and Peter made their way down to lunch, pockets a lot less full than earlier, since half their money was spent on Remus' chocolates. Sirius stayed in the dormitory, pondering about how Remus double crossed them, and thinking of new pranks to get him back. And Remus, well he was sitting under a tree with Lily and Alice, eating the all the chocolate he had recently attained.

Moral of the story?

Don't mess with Moony.

**Guys, please review! And when you do: **

**- Tell me when you want the Lily/James getting together chapter. (Bear in mind – it won't be the next one, because I need to have time to think and make it good) **

**- Give me a topic/prompt for the next chapters **

**- And tell me what you thought of this chapter! **

**Thanks for reading :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**A/N: Hey everyone! This author's note will be a little long for this chapter, but bear with me. First, thank you for all the reviewers and readers, I love seeing the amount of reads increase! Also, just remember that you can review even if you don't have an account, the only difference is that I can't reply to it. But feel free to review anyway, I love reading them!**

**The prompts for this chapter were: **

_U should have a chapter where lily hexes the heck out of james for askin her out before u do the together chapter! (BLUE LUVER5000)_

_a Hogsmead weekend and an accident happens with a certain couple in it (*hint, hint). As compensation, the said girl goes on a date with the said boy. (ALICIA TESTAROSSA) _

_a saxophone and daffodil (MISSY101)_

**I know I could have done three separate chapters, but the first two tie in nicely, and it was a good challenge to include all three! So weeeew, I'm done here. Enjoy!**

**P.S: I hope **BLUE LUVER 5000, Alicia Testarossa and MISSY101 **are satisfied with the use of the prompts!**

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"There she is James, off you trot!" Sirius nudged his best friend.

James looked around wildly, trying to locate the lovely mane of auburn hair which belonged to Lily Evans.

"Where is she Padfoot? I think I'm losing my eyesight, I can't see her anywhere!" James whined, overreacting to the greatest extent.

Sirius pointed his friend in the right direction and watched him walk over. A metre before James reached the table where Lily was sitting with Alice in the Gryffindor Common Room, he set his bag down and rummaged through it. Grinning triumphantly, he pulled out a bright yellow daffodil and gently smoothed the creases on the petals.

"Lily dearest!" James exclaimed, watching Lily roll her eyes. "How are you this fine day?"

"Just dandy. Now what do you need?"Lily snapped back, apparently not in a good mood.

Lily was clearly not going to be interested in the starting lines he had run through with Sirius, so he decided to cut the crap. Pulling out the yellow daffodil from behind his back, James held it out to Lily.

"Daffodils are beautiful flowers, aren't they? Not as beautiful as you though, don't worry Lily!" He said with a wink. "Anyway I was wondering if you were free Saturday night, so we could-"

"NO JAMES! I WILL NOT GO ON A DATE WITH YOU! NOT NOW, NOT EVER." Lily screeched and waved her wand in a complex way, causing something that looked like the measles to sprout on James' skin. The scene drew the attention of the majority of the Gryffindors seated in the Common Room, but Alice just rolled her eyes and continued with her work. She - unlike the frightened first years - was used to such occurrences between the two head students, and just ignored it.

James' smile faltered as he waved the counter curse and got his skin looking back to normal, and he looked thoroughly confused.

"Lily...I wasn't asking you out. I promised I wouldn't, remember? I was just going to ask whether you wanted to spend Saturday night planning the ball for the seventh years? The one Professor Dumbledore spoke to us about?" James stated, a little hurt by Lily's outburst. **(A/N: For those of you who don't remember, this was mentioned in the meeting with Professor Dumbledore in chapter 6)**

As James explained what he was talking about, the heat rose to Lily's cheeks as she realised she had just yelled at him for no reason. To make it worse, everyone in the common room had heard!

"Oh. Sorry James." She stuttered out, embarrassed at herself. "Yeah Saturday is fine, 8 o'clock in our common room?" James nodded, and she continued. "But why were you talking about daffodils, if you wanted to ask about the ball?"

"Daffodils? Oh, I was just going to suggest that we have them as the floral arrangements on all the tables. I mean, there's so much dark stuff going on outside the castle, may as well keep the inside as bright and happy as we can, right?" He smiled back at her before turning around to go find his friends.

While this conversation had been going on, a plan had formed in Alice's cunning mind, and she couldn't resist making it happen in real life.

"Oi James! Get back here." She called to the boy who was half way back to his friends, and he returned to the table looking slightly confused.

"Yes?"

Making a shushing sound to him, Alice turned to look at Lily.

"Lils, you're not getting off that easy. You just yelled at this innocent boy for no reason, I think you should make it up to him!" She paused for effect, letting the idea sink into both of their minds. "So, considering you yelled at him for not even asking you on a date... how about YOU take him on a date? After all, there's a Hogsmeade visit in two days!"

The idea was not too appealing to Lily and she faltered for a moment, not saying anything. James sensed her hesitance, and turned to Alice and said,

"Don't worry about it Alice, don't force Lily into doing something she doesn't want to." With that, he walked to where Sirius was draped over a chair.

However Lily had seen his face fall as he turned away, and the guilt began to eat her up inside. Taking a deep breath, she called James back to the table.

For the second time in two minutes, James was halfway to Sirius but was being called by the girls.

"What is it?" He asked Lily.

"I'll do it. I mean, not as a date though." Before Alice could open her mouth, Lily quickly continued. "Well, sort of a date. But just a one off thing okay? We'll spend a few hours together, get something to eat, and come back. But that's the end, got it?" She sighed, not believing what she had just agreed to do.

James' face lit up as he heard what Lily had to say, and after confirming details with Lily, he finally made it all the way to where Sirius was sitting with a large smile on his face.

"Guess who's got a date with Lily flower on Saturday?"

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"I can't believe you made me do that! Alice, I don't care what other people think of you. You are pure evil!" Lily groaned from the foot of Alice's bed, deciding to spend the night in the 7th year dormitories instead of her Head girl one, as she was not yet ready to see James again.

"Well it was going to happen eventually Lils, I just sped it up a little!" Alice grinned back mischievously.

With no response coming to her mind, Lily just picked up a pillow and threw it at her best friend's face. A shriek of surprise was heard from Alice, as Lily giggled and stretched her legs across the bed.

"Let's go down to dinner Lily. I don't care if you don't want to see James today, that doesn't mean we're not going to eat!" Alice whined, her tummy rumbling all the while.

Out of excuses, Lily knew that there was nothing else left to do. So she allowed Alice to pull her of the bed and then drag her to the Great Hall. They were a little late, as most of the school were already seated and well into their dinner. After Lily had taken a few bites of her dinner, Professor McGonagall hit the side of her goblet with a spoon, and the students quieted down.

"Good evening students! I know not everyone as present, as some are studying or perhaps already sleeping, but no matter. Today we are lucky enough to have Mr Parkes from Ravenclaw house perform for us while we eat! He will be playing a muggle instrument known as a saxophone, so please make him welcome!"

All the students shared amused glances, as this was the first time one of the students had volunteered to perform in front of the school. Yet everyone clapped politely as Timothy Parkes rose to the podium. In his hand was a medium sized gold instrument, reflecting light off it's every angle. Timothy's face was slightly red, but he took a deep breath and brought the instrument to his lips. As he began to play, the students and teachers sat mesmerised, hanging onto each note.

A minute later, he lowered the saxophone from his mouth, and was greeted by silence. A few seconds later it registered to everyone that he had finished playing, and there was a thunderous sound of applause. The clapping was predominantly from the three tables towards the right, whereas the applause from the Slytherin table was scattered, most of the students sneering at the audacity of Timothy to play a muggle instrument in the first place.

"Ah music! What a wonderful gift to the world!" Professor Dumbledore dabbed a tissue at his suspiciously moist eye, and thanked Timothy for his performance.

Everyone resumed their eating, and in half an hour Lily and Alice were back at each end of Alice's bed, just like before.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"So she definitely said yes Prongs? You're not hearing things, right?" Remus asked over and over, not trusting James' abilities when it came to matters relating to Lily.

Groaning, James replied,

"YES MOONY! For the tenth time, yes. She said, 'I'll do it.' That's a yes in my book!"

While Remus and James were talking, Sirius and Peter were running around the dormitory like they had been drugged, doing a celebratory dance.

"Did you slip something into their food Moony?" James asked of his best friend.

Smirking, Remus replied that he hadn't. "Just remember Prongs, she's only doing this because Alice set her up. Just don't set your hopes up too high alright?

James nodded, the thought had already occurred to him. After all, it wasn't as if Lily had been the one to suggest it, she had only agreed because she felt bad. Still, a fake date with Lily was the furthest he had ever gotten with her in the past seven years!

When Sirius and Peter finally calmed down from whatever had gotten them so high, they joined Remus in prepping James up for the big day. 2 hours of role playing ensued, with James being himself, and the other three taking it in turns to act as Lily. Whenever James gave an answer that wasn't satisfactory, Peter would whack him with a pillow until he got it right. By the end of the night, James went to sleep bruised and beaten by his friends, but grinning the whole time.

He had somehow managed to become best friends with the three weirdest people he could have possibly picked! Yet he knew that however weird, stupid, idiotic they could be, they were still the most loyal, friendly and helpful of the seventh years, and James loved them.

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**A/N: Next chapter: Hogsmeade trip! Lily and James go on the "date" which was discussed in this chapter, BUT IT WILL NOT BE THE GETTING TOGETHER CHAPTER. I repeat, they will not get together at the end of the next chapter. That will come later. **

**Anyway, thanks for reading – and please leave a review!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. All hail J.K Rowling.**

**A/N: **_**ANNOUNCMENT**__**: **__**Due to my upcoming exams, this story is being put on hold for the next 3-ish weeks! Sorry guys, but I didn't do great on last year's exams so I need to study a lot this time round! So this will be the last chapter before the break, and I will pick up where I left off in around 3 weeks. Please come back to the story after the break, I would hate to lose readers!**_

**So this chapter will include the said "date" but remember they will not get together just yet! Patience, little caterpillars. **

**Moving on – thank you for the reviews everyone! They were just splendid :) Hope you enjoy this chapter, and remember to leave a review with a prompt for the next chapter after the break.**

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><p>The head boy's room looked like a war zone. For all the James knew, a bomb could've landed in there and created the mess which had currently swamped his room. Not like he knew what a bomb was though.<p>

There were piles of clothes, books and quidditch items taking up every inch of the floor. Suddenly the door opened slightly, only to get jammed between a rogue snitch, a broken broomstick and a pair of James Potter's underwear. After much manoeuvring, the door was finally pushed open and one seventeen and two sixteen year old boys walked in. The ongoing conversation between the boys stopped abruptly as they examined the sight in front of them.

"That's where my charms notes went! I thought I lost them!" Remus exclaimed, pulling pieces of parchment out from under bottles of shampoo and conditioner.

"That's great Moony, but how about we focus on finding James under this mess instead?" Sirius said whilst knocking over piles of clothing.

Peter followed suit, and also looked for his friend. He looked at a pile, before tilting his head and squinting his eyes. There was just something not right about the scene in front of him. After further investigating, the sleeping body of James Potter was found under a pile of clothes.

"I found him guys!" Peter called out. "I have no clue how he fell asleep _under_ a pile of clothes, but he seems to have managed it." Kicking James gently in the side, Peter watched as James woke up.

"Comfortable?" Remus smirked from behind Peter.

It would take a full three minutes and twenty seven seconds before James would be fully awake and functional, so the only response that Remus received was a blink.

Three minutes and twenty seven seconds later the light came back into James' eyes, and he jumped to his feet in a frenzy.

"What's the time?" A sense of urgency was present in James' voice, causing the others to exchange glances.

Remus checked his watch before saying,

"It's... 9:42."

"Shoot! I'm supposed to meet Lily down at the Great Hall in 18 minutes for our Hogsmeade date!" James cried.

Suddenly his three best friends realised why his room looked the way it did – James had been going through his wardrobe for something to wear. Peter and Remus automatically looked at Sirius, and Sirius just sighed and rummaged through piles. They didn't need to say it out loud, each of them knew what the other was thinking.

Finally Sirius found what he was looking for and made his way over to where James was trying to flatten his hair.

"Forget it mate," Sirius grinned. "It's never going to work! But here, put these on and we'll go down to meet Lily, alright?" Then he dumped a grey flannel shirt and a pair of loose black pants into James' outstretched arms, and steered him towards the bathroom.

While James was getting changed, Sirius located a pair of shoes and socks for him to put on, Remus transfigured a clean tissue into a single daffodil and Peter started to clean the room up.

Once James got out of the bathroom, he put on the shoes and socks that Sirius had selected for him.

"What's the flower for Moony?" James inquired, referring to the daffodil that Remus was holding out to him.

"Give it to Lily you git! I know she doesn't like people going overboard with this stuff, so she'd probably prefer you just give her this single flower."

Shrugging, James took the flower and nervously ran his hand through his bangs.

"Did you want to go down stairs then?" James asked.

"Mate, we've been ready the whole time, we were waiting for you. So yeah, let's go!" Said Peter.

Sirius, Remus and Peter exchanged a smile over James' nervous state, and silently made a mutual agreement not to remind him that it wasn't even a real date. After all, Lily would probably do that plenty of times. So they just grinned at followed their friend out of the Head dormitories.

"But Prongs, seriously, how did you manage to fall asleep under a pile of clothes?"

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The open doors of the Great Hall welcomed the four boys in, as they took their places smack bang in the middle of the table. Lily and Alice were yet to arrive, which did nothing to soothe James' nerves.

"What if she doesn't want to go anymore? I mean, she doesn't even like me! She probably won't show! What am I going to do guys? Remus can you go talk to her and convince her-"

"Prongs?" Remus asked, cutting James off.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up." Remus advised.

James wasn't satisfied with this short answer and continued,

"But what if-"

"Prongs?" This time Sirius was the one to ask.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up." Sirius smirked, copying Remus' words.

This just got James annoyed, and he mumbled under his breath about stupid friends and throwing food at said friends.

"Guys, listen. Just suppose-" James said hurriedly, but still got cut off by Peter.

"Prongs?"

"What?" James snapped.

"Shut up." Wormtail replied stoutly.

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Soon after the situation at breakfast, Lily and Alice had appeared and James had finally calmed down. He gave the flower and was rewarded with a smile, before Lily reminded him that it wasn't a real date.

Lily and James had left for Hogsmeade, Alice had left to join her other friends, and the three remaining Marauders were left to make their own way to the wonderful village of Hogsmeade.

The boys headed straight to Zonko's joke shop with a promise to visit Honeydukes, they were sure to be entertained for at least a few hours.

Meanwhile, Lily and James sat in the Three Broomsticks as Madam Rosmerta came to take their orders.

"Two butterbeers please." James said, and dropped a handful of silver coins into Madam Rosmerta's palm.

She smiled at the two of them and said,

"Oh I knew you two would end up together sooner or later! It was bound to happen!"

James went red and a slight tinge appeared on Lily's cheeks, while the two hurriedly dismissed the idea and corrected Madam Rosmerta.

Giving them a knowing look, she simply nodded and went off to collect the orders.

"Sooo..." James said, oh so eloquently.

"Yeah..." Lily too seemed to have nothing to say.

"Did you have a good sleep last night?" James asked. _Damn it James. Stupid question!_ He thought to himself.

"Um... yes. Yes I did." Lily replied, her eyes darting back on forth from where Alice and Marlene were sitting, to James in front of her. "How about you?"

James smiled a little too enthusiastically before replying,

"I had a great sleep thanks! I dreamt about you actually!" _CRAP. THAT CAME OUT WRONG. NOW SHE THINKS I'M SOME SORT OF CREEP. QUICK, FIX THE SITUATION JAMES! Wait, if I'm ...thinking... to myself, why am I calling myself James? Hm. Maybe I should just say 'hey you,' or – CRAP LILY'S STARING. _

"I... I didn't mean it that way of course!" James laughed maniacally as Lily continued to stare in a mixture of disgust and being creeped out in general. "I simply meant that I dreamt of spending the day with you!" He added. _Great job James. That reeeeallly made things better. _

Suddenly Madam Rosmerta appeared with two butterbeers and placed them on a table. With a wink in their general direction, she smiled at Lily and James before going back to the counter.

"This is great butter beer!" James grinned, hoping to start some sort of conversation.

Lily hurried to reply, not wanting to make the situation more awkward than it already was, and resulted in choking on her butterbeer.

"Yes! Yeah it's great." She gasped, still slightly unnerved by the recent choking.

A period of uncomfortable conversations and long gaps ensued, before James suggested they take a walk. Lily agreed quickly, finishing off her butter beer and following James outside.

They headed to Honeydukes where James insisted on buying Lily candy and himself a drink, before they kept walking in hopes that they would find somewhere nice.

The two of them ended up walking down a significantly less crowded lane in Hogsmeade, where occasionally there would be a tinkling of a bell as someone entered a shop, but was otherwise quite deserted. Short trees surrounded the area, creating a border to a long stretch of grass. Daisies bloomed in patches throughout the field, the spots of yellow were easy to spot out. Had this scene been in a movie, there was no doubt a couple would be sitting in the middle of the field, having a picnic. It was all too clichéd.

So instead, James and Lily stuck to the walking path around the field, leaving the shops of Hogsmeade behind them.

"I like your top by the way Lily. Is it new?" James commented.

"Oh, thank you." Lily smiled. "Yes, my mother just bought it and sent it over."

"I think it makes your breasts look bigger." _Oh Merlin. I should _not_ have said that._

Shocked by what was said, Lily went a deep shade of red and readied herself to yell at James for his extremely inappropriate comment. However before she could berate him properly, or jinx him somehow, she witnessed something extremely strange.

Suddenly – out of nowhere- Sirius appeared, and he walked straight up to James and hit him in the head with a pillow.

Hard.

Then, as if nothing had happened, he continued on his way.**(A/N: Before you go ahead and start questioning my sanity, this was actually a prompt suggested by **Blue Luver 5000**, so here's what you had asked for! Hope it was what you wanted!)**

"...What was that?" Lily asked, a little hesitant of what the answer might be, and quite forgetting James' inappropriate comment not a moment ago.

"What? Oh about Sirius? Don't worry," James dismissed with a wave of his hand. "He's my conscience, that's all."

"You're conscience?" Lily repeated.

"Yep." James nodded wisely. "He hits me with a pillow when I do or say something stupid."

Lily opened her mouth to say something more, but then shook her head slightly and closed it again. Nothing was worth trying to figure out what went on in the heads of the Marauders. Not even chocolate coated marshmallows dipped in hundred and thousands. And that was saying something.

So instead the two of them kept walking at a leisurely pace and asked the occasional question, to which the other would respond with a short answer, before the silence would take over. For the next half an hour, chocolate wrappers were peeled off much too loudly, drinks were slurped with too much force and the sound of Lily's boots on the footpath sounded much too loud to be normal.

It seemed that they were both doing everything they could to interrupt the silence, but their hopes were failing miserably.

Half an hour later, James finally admitted to himself that it had been a disastrous date and asked Lily if she wanted to head back to the castle.

His face fell slightly when she agreed immediately, but decided to make the most of it on their walk back.

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The walk back to the castle hadn't been too bad, as the scattered conversation was definitely a step up from whatever had been happening earlier during the day. Not too long later, they approached the castle and trekked up to the Gryffindor common room. Hugging goodbye, Lily mentioned what a great time she'd had, but James knew as well as she did that it was the biggest lie in the history of the world. Instead of mentioning this however, James just smiled and agreed, and went off to meet his friends.

Lily walked up the steps to the 7th year dormitories where Alice and their friend Marlene were chatting. Lily walked up to her spare bed at the end, and collapsed onto it saying,

"Worst date-"

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"-ever!" James groaned as his three best friends came to sit beside his bed.

"Surely it couldn't have been that bad! I mean, apart from the having big breasts part. Come on Prongs, that has to be the worst thing you could've possibly said!" Sirius sniggered.

Peter and Remus exchanged scandalised glances, apparently not having heard the story. It was probably best that they hadn't, one less horrific experience they would have to hear about.

"But what happened James?" Remus asked his friend, "I thought you guys were pretty good friends now? How can you go from good friends to not being able to hold a conversation with each other?"

James groaned and said,

"I don't know! I reckon we were both thinking of it as a date too much, and less as a time for us to hang out. It's weird though, the second I asked if she wanted to go back to school and basically 'ended' the date, we had a much better conversation. Maybe we shouldn't have forced a date on ourselves this early – I don't know. But what I do know, is that I need to sleep and pretend this never happened."

"What about dinner?" Peter exclaimed.

"Screw dinner, I need sleep." James talked into his pillow.

Scandalised, Sirius and Peter only just realised how hard James was taking the debacle of a date. He...he wanted to miss dinner.

This was unheard of. This just wasn't done.

Deciding the best thing would be to leave him be, the other three boys went down to dinner from where Lily too was missing. How coincidental.

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The next morning James decided he must make things right with Lily. He had to stop thinking of her as his date from yesterday, and more as his good friend. After hurriedly dressing himself, he raced down to the common room to wait for when Lily would go down to breakfast. There was a good chance that she had already gone, but Lily liked to sleep in on Sundays so perhaps not.

After seven minutes of waiting, Lily finally descended the stair case, flanked by Alice and Marlene. Seeing Lily approach, James jumped up from the armchair and asked to speak to her.

Lily, Alice and Marlene exchanged a glance, before the other two girls smirked and gave Lily a push in the direction of James. As she turned to glare at the girls, Lily found the two of them whistling innocently to themselves, and skipping down to the Great Hall. Meaning she would have yet another awkward conversation with James as she would be forced to walk down with him.

Great.

"Look Lily, I'm really sorry about yesterday! I made a mistake in saying that we should go on a date, we obviously didn't make a great couple." James sighed, not knowing what else to say. "So can we forget that, and just go back to being good friends again?"

"Forget it? No James, I have a good feeling neither of us are going to forget this incidence any time soon. It was much too embarrassing for that!" Lily grinned at James as he let out the breath he had been holding. "When you asked me how I slept? I nearly started laughing!"

James joined in with Lily's laughter, and they made their way down to the Great Hall, making jokes at each other's expense the entire time.

And that's when James realised that the friendship he had with Lily wasn't worth losing, and he wasn't going to risk it again by moving too fast. Though perhaps, in time, they could go on a date again- and it wouldn't be as bad as yesterday's had been.

Perhaps one day, they could actually be a couple.

But for now, James was content with just being friends.

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><p><strong>AN: There you are dear readers, I tried to make this chapter longer to make up for the upcoming break! (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, scroll up to the top and read the author's note!) **

**So adios for now, and I look forward to returning to this story in about 3ish weeks! **

**Please leave a review, they'll motivate me to return after the break! :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Kudos to JK Rowling for that one. **

**A/N: I am so sorry for the late update, straight after I finished my exams I got the flu, and was unfortunately bedridden for the next week. Since it has been a long time since the last update, I just whipped up this filler chapter quickly today because I wanted to post something so that you guys know I haven't abandoned this story! So that is why I haven't used any of the prompts this time round, it's just a quick, short update today :)**

**Remember to review, and if you gave me a prompt before the break, look out for them in the next update! **

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><p><strong>* A MISTAKE HAS BEEN FIXED, I ACCIDENTLY WROTE THAT IT WAS SATURDAY, BUT I DON'T BELIEVE THERE ARE CLASSES ON WEEKENDS. Thank you for alerting me, and good pick up <strong>Blue Luver5000 :)

"Moony. Moony. Moony. Moony. Moony. Moo- aghhh!" Sirius repeatedly hit Remus on the head with a pillow in an attempt to wake him up. Apparently it worked.

"Moony!" Sirius whined, "Why did you have to hit me?"

A very irritated young werewolf threw down his pillow at his cowering friend on the ground, before stretching his arms behind back.

"Do you know what the date is today Sirius?" He asked in a low, threatening tone.

Sirius looked at the calendar in Remus' hands and back to Remus.

"You're holding a calendar! Why are you asking me?" He was silenced by a single look from Remus, before he spoke up again. "It's Friday."

"Date Sirius, date. Not day."

"Oh right, the 23rd?" Sirius asked hesitantly.

"Yes, and you know what happens tomorrow night?" Remus asked in that same low tone, whilst gathering his clothes.

"Um...," Sirius racked his brains for any prank or night time stroll which had slipped his mind, but came up with nothing.

"I turn into a bloody monster, that's what!"

Finally a reason for Remus' snappy attitude and rapid mood swings.

"Oh yeah, that's right. It's your time of the month, I nearly forgot!" Sirius confirmed, quite proud of the way he had inconspicuously referred to his friend's 'furry little problem', without actually mentioning it.

Yet apparently it had been the wrong thing to say.

A low growl was emitted from the region of the room where Remus was making his bed, before he leapt on top of Sirius and tackled him to the ground. Unheard by either of them, the bathroom door swung open and Peter walked out, still attempting to dry his hair with the near soaking towel. The scene did not seem to surprise him, as fighting was an everyday matter when it came to the Marauders. Some people might be shocked and call it an abomination, but Peter however, just called it Saturday morning.

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James soon joined his friends, and the four sauntered up to the Great Hall passing by many staring and ogling eyes, but this wasn't new. All four of the boys attracted many looks from mostly the females population, but most of them were mainly directed at Sirius. At the beginning, Remus and James had collected the same or possibly even more glances than Sirius, yet word soon got out that Remus didn't date, and that James was smitten with Lily, so soon people adjusted their gazes onto Sirius.

It wasn't that Peter didn't get his fair share of female attention, but the most innocent of the four just didn't seem to notice it. He would just wave merrily at girls making eyes at him, somehow not realising that their reasoning for doing so was a little too friendly. James, Remus and Peter however did not seem to resent the attention that Sirius was gathering, but all for their own reasons. James only had eyes for Lily, Peter didn't care for a girlfriend, and Remus knew that being in a relationship would mean having to spill his biggest secret, and he was not sure that everyone would take it as well as his three best friends had.

Two of the boys walked up either side of the Gryffindor table, and settled themselves in at a spot that seemed to be reserved for them. Ever since fourth year it seemed that no one ever sat there any longer, that was around the time that the Marauders had made their mark on Hogwarts. The end of third year brought so many pranks, jinxes and shenanigans that the Marauders seemed to be in a league of their own. No one in the history of Hogwarts had ever collected as many detentions in a month, as Professor McGonagall had been all too pleased to remind them.

Yet three years had passed since then, and even then the Marauders stayed strong. Their friendship seemed more unbreakable than ever, the pranks were a little more spaced out but still were a lot more elaborate, and somehow three of them seemed to grab top marks in most subjects, with Peter just scraping through.

"Remus, are you feeling alright?" Lily's voice brought him back to attention, as he finished chewing a piece of toast.

"I'm a bit under the weather today, but I'm going home tomorrow to visit my mother so I'll have a chance to rest then." Remus smiled in response.

"Are you sure you'll be okay though? You look pretty sick. If you want to take the day off, I can send a copy of the notes to you through one of the others." Lily persisted, always looking out for her friends.

Remus sighed as he rested his head in his hands,

"Thanks Lily, but I think I'll be alright. But I have patrol tonight, I'd be grateful if you can switch someone on instead of me? I think Bridget needed to be somewhere too, so if you could find two replacements?"

"Yeah sure, I'll do rounds for you. I think I've got all my homework covered. Now I just need to find someone else." Lily said.

"I'll do it!" James cut in.

"Oh, okay sure. That's sorted then. Wait James, didn't you say you had to finish your Transfiguration and Potions essays tonight?" Asked Lily.

Cursing internally, James smiled.

"No I did that last night actually, I'm free for tonight!" He cheered. "But I think we need to go to class now. Coming Padfoot?"

James walked a few steps ahead of the others as he waited for Sirius to catch up to him. Hearing his friend fall into step with him he turned to ask a favour, but Sirius got there first.

"You didn't do your essays did you?"

James grinned, knowing he had been caught out.

"No mate, can I copy yours tonight? More time to spend with Lily or writing essays?" James pretended to contemplate it in his head. "Time with Lily wins. Every time."

Sirius just shook his head as he laughed at his best friend's antics.

"Yeah whatever, but don't copy it completely. Slughorn might be a pushover, but you know what McGonagall's like. She'll be able to tell you copied without even reading a paragraph!"

"That's true, yeah thanks mate. Shoot I brought the wrong book, I've got to run back to my dorm. I'll see you in Charms, alright?" James called over his shoulder, already running through the crowded corridor.

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Weaving in and out through the corridor, James dodged mostly all the people as he ran past. However an over the shoulder apology was needed more than a few times when he did happen to hit, shove or completely run into people. Though the start of first period was inching closer and closer, so the corridors emptied out. As James collected his book and jogged back to the charms classroom, he happened to narrowly miss running into Snape.

"Watch where you're going blood traitor!" Snape hissed at him as he ran passed.

Had it been even last year, James knew that he would've whipped out his wand there and then, and duelled his nemesis until someone was injured or a teacher broke it up. Yet James smiled as he continued on his journey to class, rather than doing any of that, because he knew that he had changed.

His last year's self may have done many things similar to the present James, but he had moved on from little petty fights and arguments – mostly. Sometimes it was too tempting to throw a jinx at one of the Slytherins who happened to yell an insult, but for the most part James had matured.

As small as it may be, that was something that he was proud of.

And because of these small little victories that James had won, even if he was battling against himself, he knew that he had just pushed himself that little bit closer towards Lily.

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><p><strong>AN: Thanks for reading folks, and yes, I did just say folks. Moving on, next update will be longer and will actually use the prompts, this time was more of a filler chapter! **

**The review button is lonely. Click it and make it happy :) **


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**A/N: Sorry for the gap between chapters, I've had so much going on lately. Here's an update though :) Here's the prompt that I used for this chapter: **

**- A truth or dare chapter **(From: _life1428_)

**There are two prompts that I haven't used yet, **(Prompts: the girls pulling a prank on the boys – library themed, and a prank from the Marauders where the Great Hall rains whenever it rains outside.) **but I set it up so that they will be the in the next chapter. Don't worry – I haven't forgotten!**

**Thanks for sticking with the story, hope you enjoy the chapter!**

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><p>Sunday night in the Head's common room proved to be more boring than the group that were lounging around in it would have imagined. Lily and Remus were helping Alice complete her Charms essay, whilst James, Sirius and Peter played a thirty-fourth game of exploding snap.<p>

"Guys, this is by far the most boring evening I have ever spent with you people. And Sirius Black does not have boring evenings. So, I vote we change things up a little."

Peter and James voiced their agreement immediately, hoping for anything that could make the evening more enjoyable. Alice, however, had other ideas.

"Sirius I have to finish my essay! Just another half an hour and then I'll be done. Please?" She asked, pouting and putting on a cute puppy face.

Sirius yelped and covered his eyes,

"NO! DON'T GIVE ME THE PUPPY DOG EYES. That's an unfair advantage God gave to girls."

Alice just smirked as she dipped her quill into the bottle of ink, and listened as Remus offered her suggestions on what she should write about.

"Hey!" Sirius yelled, completely cutting across Remus. "I wasn't done here! Alice, put your work away. You can do that tomorrow morning before class, don't worry about it. Evans, Moony, get your asses down on the ground with us, and we'll figure out a way to entertain ourselves.

Alice groaned and said,

"But Siriu-"

"No buts Alice. Live a little." Sirius cut across, something he had been doing a lot lately.

Eventually Alice gave in and rolled up her parchment. Muttering a word of thanks to Lily and Remus for their help, she joined them in the circle they had formed on the ground. After everyone was ready they all looked to Sirius, wondering what to do next. Sirius took the attention in his stride, and racked his brains for something to do.

"How about we play a game of truth or dare?" He exclaimed enthusiastically.

The other five looked around at each other slowly, trying to reach a mutual agreement. They had all had experience with Sirius' truth or dare games, and their stories were horrific – never to be mentioned again. Peter nodded hesitantly, while others just shrugged their shoulders uncertainly. Seeing that no one outright rejected the idea, James spoke up.

"Alright Padfoot. We'll play – but we have to agree on the rules first! None of your making up rules on the spot business, agreed?" James said, as he looked around at the others.

"Yeah, I agree with James. We all get to decide the rules this time, as a group. When we leave it in your hands then the game usually goes downhill for us." Remus grimaced, as his mind strayed back to the last time they had agreed to play the game.

"Alright, whatever." Sirius said, rubbing his hands together in glee. Grabbing a quill and parchment from Lily's study desk, he quickly scratched out some rules.

If a truth is not revealed or a dare is not completed then the person has to remove a piece of their clothing. The others choose which - shoes and socks count as one!

Once a person is picked to do a truth or dare, they get to pick the next person.

No one can be picked twice in a row, and you can't pick the person who picked you.

Since none of us has veritaserum with us right now, Remus can place a truth charm on the person to make sure they don't lie.

If the dare is to be completed outside this room, then the person who thought of the dare goes along with the person who is going to complete it, but under a disillusionment charm.

"Is this okay with everyone?" Sirius asked, as they all tried to make out what was written in his untidy scrawl.

One by one each person in the room nodded their consent, and Sirius was nearly bouncing in excitement.

"Okay! Prongs – go get the empty bottle of firewhiskey from your room. Everyone else, get comfortable, we might be here a while!" He winked mischievously.

"What empty bottle of firewhiskey James?" Lily asked, her tone dangerously low.

"Um..nothing... I don't know...Sirius. It belongs to Sirius." James stuttered, before deciding to dump the blame on his best friend.

No one in the room bought his excuse, especially not Lily. However she accepted his mutterings and motioned for him to hurry up and get the bottle. Grateful for his escape, he ran to his room and fished the bottle from where it had rolled under his bed. The bottle was snatched out of his hand on his return to the group, and Sirius spun it eagerly.

"Wormy, excellent!" Peter groaned as the bottle stopped at him, and also because of his new nickname.

Not wanting the name to stick, he quickly piped up,

"It's Wormtail, Sirius. Not Wormy."

Sirius batted Peter's reply away with his hand and grinned.

"Potato, tomato!"

Remus caught Lily's eye and they both shared a laugh over Sirius' complete lack of concern about the fact that he said the phrase incorrectly.

"Anyway Peter, what do you pick?"

After a few seconds of consideration, Peter ended up picking the safer option.

"Truth." He said.

Sirius groaned as he had been hoping for a dare, but Remus just waved his wand and cast a spell to only reveal the truth.

"Fine. Out of all our current teachers, which one would you most like to get with? Male or female, we don't discriminate." He finished with a wink.

James roared with laughter, and Remus just chuckled appreciatively. However Lily and Alice seemed a little more shocked, and giggled with each other, as Peter turned a light shade of pink.

"Well female obviously." He said. "Hmm, I think I would have to say Professor Sprout."

Once again everyone in the room burst into laughter, though Sirius stopped quite quickly and asked,

"Not Minnie? She's got some appeal, there's no denying!"

All the laughter halted quite abruptly as everyone turned to stare at Sirius. Once they had determined that he was not being serious, but instead just joking, they sighed in relief.

"Why Professor Sprout, Peter?" Alice asked, "I would've thought you would say that Muggle Studies Professor, what's her name?"

Peter just shrugged uncomfortably before saying,

"Well, Professor Sprout is... attractive. Kind of."

All the others exchanged amused glances but chose not to embarrass Peter any further, so they moved on.

"Well Peter, it's your turn to pick someone!" Lily spoke up.

"Oh right, Prongs." He said.

James looked up as his name was spoken, having being unusually quiet since the game started.

"I pick dare."

Sirius and Alice whooped excitedly, the latter getting more caught up in the game than expected.

"Alright, calm down you two!" Peter said to Sirius and Alice and they glared at him before quieting down. "Okay Prongs, I dare you to kiss Lily."

Suddenly all eyes were on the pair, wondering what would happen next. It couldn't be clearer that Lily was uncomfortable with the dare, and looked like she would like nothing more than to be sucked up into the floor. However James looked more like a deer caught in headlights. He was shocked, not expecting a dare like this – least of all from Peter! However it had been said, so he had no way of getting out of it.

James replayed the words over and over in his head. _I dare you to kiss Lily. I dare you to kiss Lily. I dare you to kiss Lily._ _I dare you to_ – wait what? Peter hadn't specified where to kiss her, so he could just as easily kiss her cheek or hand. James was surprised with himself, because for more than three years he had wanted nothing more than to just kiss Lily. Though now he had the opportunity handed to him on a plate, and he was trying to get out of it? But it struck James that the reason he was trying to find a loophole wasn't because he didn't want to kiss Lily – because he definitely did. He realised that he was doing it because Lily didn't want to be kissed.

Even though he may have wanted to kiss Lily for years, he still didn't want to force it upon her. He would kiss her when the time was right, when she would respond with as much enthusiasm as he would. Not when she would be squirming uncomfortably and hoping she was somewhere else.

It was this thought that drove James to move closer to Lily and place a soft kiss on her cheek.

"There, done. You didn't say where to kiss her Peter, so technically I completed my dare." He said, and avoided looking at Lily.

Just like everyone except for James, Lily looked shell shocked. Apparently she too had thought that James would've pounced on the opportunity to kiss her, and would have done it without a second thought. And yet he didn't, he proved them all wrong. Lily released the breath she didn't even realise she had been holding since Peter had spoken the dare, and she relaxed her shoulders. She had really not wanted James to kiss her, and for some unknown reason – he didn't.

After a moment of awkward silence, Remus cleared his throat and reminded James that it was his turn to pick someone.

"Alice." He said immediately, looking straight past Lily and instead at of her best friend.

"Dare!" Alice giggled nervously, not knowing what James would tell her to do.

He thought hard for a moment before coming up with an idea.

"I dare you to write a love letter and leave it in Slughorn's office – but you have to sign it as Professor McGonagall!"

"I'm no good at writing poems and things James, can't I do something else?" Alice moaned, already knowing what the answer was going to be.

"Wait! I have this book in my room which has a really corny romantic poem, you can use that! Otherwise you could always do the chicken..."

Alice shook her head quickly, not wanting to do the chicken at all. So Lily walked over to her dormitory and returned a minute later with a book in her hand.

Alice quickly copied down the poem onto a spare piece of parchment and wrote Minerva McGonagall at the bottom, with a love heart just for the fun of it.

Alice got up to go deliver the note, but Sirius reminded her of rule #5.

"Prongs has to go with you Alice dear! We can't have you pretending to do the dare but actually throwing out the note." Sirius grinned.

Alice looked at James and shrugged, so the both of them left the Head's common room to go to Professor Slughorn's office. Luckily it wasn't too far away, and they returned within five minutes.

"Alright, Remus. I pick you." Alice said as she sat back down in her spot.

"I think I'm going to pick truth. I can't be bothered getting up or going anywhere."

Alice laughed lightly before thinking of a question. There weren't many questions that weren't clichéd truth or dare questions, such as 'who do you like?' or 'who would you prefer to go out with?', so instead she thought of one that was completely different.

"Who made up your nicknames, and what do they mean?" She asked, quite proud of herself. It had been bugging her for a while, but she had never asked.

Remus froze up, and Sirius, Peter and James also went oddly quiet. They all glanced nervously at each other, not knowing how to evade the question. Alice noticed the tense atmosphere and wondered what secret the boys were hiding. Surely there nicknames couldn't be that big a deal? She looked back at Remus and raised her eyebrows, waiting for his response.

"I... I think I'm going to stick with the chicken." He said nervously, glad that Sirius had made that rule.

Alice sighed, she had hoped to hear the answer. Yet she knew that it happened to be a touchy subject, and so she didn't push it. Instead she just nodded, and shrugged her shoulders slightly.

"Okay fine, take your top off then." She smiled wickedly.

The previous atmosphere seemed to have lifted, and Remus' nervousness had disappeared. He groaned and pulled off his top, revealing a fit body. It wasn't as athletic as Sirius' or James' since they both played quidditch and he didn't, but he still liked to exercise regularly.

"Okay, Lily I pick you. Actually I pick you and Alice, can I do that?"

The others nodded their agreement and Remus continued.

"Okay, since the two of you think that our pranks aren't all that great, I dare you two to play a prank within the next two days. There are two rules: you can't play it on a particular person or group, but you have to do it on the whole school in general. The second rule is that you have to do it during lunch or dinner, where the teachers are present." Remus said, glancing at everyone in turn. "Meanwhile, Sirius, James, Peter and I will also play a prank with the same rules as yours, and then we will see who plays better prank."

Lily and Alice looked at each other and grinned, both of them equally as excited about the prank.

"Okay, sure thing! We'll do it!" Lily exclaimed, and Alice nodded enthusiastically.

Remus turned to face the other Marauders, hoping they wouldn't be too mad that he just signed them for a prank. However the others were already talking in hushed voices, planning for their prank. Remus just smiled and shook his head slightly.

"Look out boys, Lily is an evil genius!" Alice giggled.

"Lily, evil?" Sirius scoffed, "Never!"

Alice just smiled mysteriously and said,

"Fine, but don't say we did warn you when our prank totally beats yours!"

"Well, both teams have 48 hours from now." Remus said, making sure the rules were totally clear.

"It's on!"

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><p><strong>AN: That's it for now! As I said earlier, the other two prompts that I haven't used yet are coming up in the next chapter. I was planning on having them at the end of this chapter, but it was taking too long to write and I wanted to put an update up today. So definitely next time! **

**I also would love some feedback, - I'm trying to show that James is maturing as he's getting older, and this is the reason Lily ends up going out with him. Can you see the change slowly coming through, or should I change the way I'm writing it?**

**Please leave a review, it motivates me to update more regularly! Thank you :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: J.K Rowling owns Harry Potter. As much as I wish I was her, I am not. **

**A/N: I am so so sorry. I.. I don't even have an excuse for not updating for so long. I just couldn't find motivation. I'm sorry I failed you, oh dearest readers of mine. **

**This chapter links onto the previous one, and uses these prompts: **

**- The girls pulling a prank on the boys.**

**- A prank by the Marauders where it rains inside the Great Hall whenever it rains outside.**

* * *

><p>"Today we are trying something different for the seventh year students. As you know your NEWT exams will be at the end of this year, so the week leading up to exams we are planning to give the seventh years a week off from classes to prepare. However I must stress upon you that this is not free time. This is <em>studying<em> time." Professor McGonagall announced as the students began to dig into their breakfast. "You will be in the library during normal class times, and you must ask the supervising teacher before you go to your common room to collect other books. I am sure some of you may feel that you do not to study the whole time, but you will soon come to realise that you will need any preparation time you can get." Here she sat down and Professor Dumbledore took over.

"So as a trial run, today the seventh year students are exempt from classes, and instead will spend the day studying in the library. All seventh years must be at the library by 8:45, and should bring their homework or books they can study. Class will run normally for the other years. Enjoy your day." The headmaster looked at the students over his half moon glasses and smiled.

"The whole day? A whole entire day in the library?" Sirius moaned to his friends. "But I've never been to the library! I was planning to set a record!"

Remus shook at his friend's antics and laughed,

"Well it was going to happen at one point or another Sirius. With NEWTs coming up it was inevitable."

"No it wasn't!" Sirius stubbornly shook his head.

Remus tilted his head slightly before asking,

"And why is that?"

"Because I don't know what inevitable means."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter trudged along to the library, hauling a tremendous amount of books between them.

"Remind me why we brought so many books Moony?"

"So you can effectively put your time to use. Whether you like it or not our exams are only four months away. We need to study if we want to do well." Remus sighed, explaining for the umpteenth time.

**(A/N: Isn't umpteenth the coolest word?! Haha sorry, I'll stop wasting your time...)**

Sirius huffed and tried to think of an appropriate retort. This proved to be a difficult task, as Remus had studies very high in the list of his priorities. So instead Sirius traipsed along to the library with his three best friends in silence. Right when they reached the library however, he thought of a way to get Remus to ease up on all the work he had been planning to do.

"But Remus, we should use this time to plan our prank! I'll bet Lily and Alice have already finished planning theirs, and we can't get beaten by them – we're the Marauders!"

This seemed to have struck home with Remus, considering he was the one who initiated the dare in the first place. Thirty two hours had passed since the dare had commenced, leaving only sixteen more hours for both teams to perform an original prank. Being fairly confident that they could easily plan a prank at the last minute and still win, the boys hadn't spent much time discussing what they were going to do.

"Okay Sirius, I give up. We can study til 12 o'clock, and after lunch it's all prank planning. Alright?" Remus asked as he placed his books on a table.

Realising that this would be the extent of Remus' leniency, Sirius just grinned and nodded in consent.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Lily and Alice were already seated in the library as the Marauders walked in, and the girls glanced at each other and smirked. They had finished planning their prank down to the last detail and were extremely proud of it. They couldn't wait til dinner time, when they would show off their skills to the whole of Hogwarts. Or at least whoever attended dinner.

After around an hour of solid work and minimum speaking, Alice broke the silence.

"So Lil, I've been meaning to ask for quite a while now, how's things between you and James?" She grinned.

The slightest pink tinge was visible on Lily's cheeks as she calmly stated,

"We're friends, that's all. I know you've always wanted us to get together, but Alice it's not going to happen! He's him and I'm ... me. We just don't work like that."

"Okay."

"Okay?" Asked Lily, "That's all you're going to say? After years of trying to get us together, all you can say is okay?'

Alice smirked and put down her quill,

"Lil, sooner or later you're going to fall into James' arms just like I've been telling you. But I've decided that I'm not going to rush it anymore. You'll see, when you end up together without any of my help then you'll realise I was right all along."

Lily simply shook her head and allowed a little grin before absorbing herself in her work again. After a few minutes she looked up to where the Marauders were sitting, Remus helping Peter research for his Potions essay, while Sirius and James compared their essays to see whose was better. As James looked over to ask Remus something he spotted Lily watching them, a few tables across. With a stunning smile, he winked at Lily and then focused his attention back to Remus. Blushing a little, Lily immediately looked back at her essay, her mind whirring. Why was she blushing? Was Alice right? After all this time, had she grown to care for James, perhaps in more than just a platonic way?

He was definitely more mature, and he had fit in extremely well in his Head Boy role. He was a natural leader, a person who the younger students looked up to, and was always willing to show a first year to class, or to look over their essay. Sometimes Lily envied the way that leadership came easily to him, whereas she had to put in a significant effort. He was definitely talented, with his top marks and his exceptional quidditch skills; there was no denying his talent. He also had the reputation of being one of the best looking male students at Hogwarts. So then what was it about him that Lily Evans didn't like? Long gone was the arrogant fifteen year old boy who would bully people for fun and shout his affections for Lily from the rooftops. Everything about him seemed...perfect.

That was it.

That's what scared Lily. How did the fifteen year old Potter turn into the seventeen year old James, without any faults? And who was to say he wouldn't change back? Lily knew she was slowly falling for him, but what if that was all he wanted? For her to fall for him, so that he could say he won. For him to say that he finally got the girl who never wanted him. So until she knew his true feelings, Lily wasn't about to reveal hers. No, not yet.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The last of the sun's glow still remained on the castle as Remus, Peter, James and Sirius strutted over to the Great Hall. Dark clouds loomed ominously over the tall towers, almost exploding with the amount of water they held.

"Good think we looked up charms in the library today, we're going to kick the girls' butts with our prank!" Peter exclaimed.

The other three simply grinned, coming to a halt before the doors of the Great Hall.

"Does everyone remember their spells?" Remus asked as he glanced around. Three faces nodded excitedly at him, pulling out their wands.

Aiming to be inconspicuous, James and Sirius walked into the hall first. To everyone it seemed as though they were having an ordinary conversation, but to someone listening extremely closely, both boys were actually muttering a string of different spells. Peter and Remus followed closely behind, their wands at their sides, being waved in time with their spells, but not enough to cause any suspicion. Just before taking their seats at the Gryffindor table, the four boys slipped their wands back into their robe pockets and grinned knowingly.

"We saw what you were doing with you wands," Lily whispered from her seat next to Remus, "and I guess that means that your prank didn't work. So much for being 'pranksters'!"

Alice smirked from where she was sitting across from Lily.

"Let's show the boys how it's done Lils!" With that, she pulled her wand out and held it under the table, away from everyone's sight. When Lily did the same, they both looked and each other and whispered a spell. The Marauders all shifted their attention from Lily and Alice to everyone else in the hall, only to see that they weren't ...themselves. Students everywhere were morphing into other students, and some even into teachers. However there was a catch – the person couldn't feel their own body morphing, but could still witness everyone else doing so. Suddenly, there was chaos everywhere.

"Hey! Why do you look like me?"

"I don't look like you! You, Amos Diggory, are a male. I, am a fem- WOAH WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?!"

"What's happening?"

"Why are there three Elizabeth Parkers?"

"Why am I suddenly so short?"

"Dude, why the hell did you look like a girl?"

As shouts like this were echoing around the hall, the six Gryffindors were doubling over in laughter.

"James, mate look at Remus, he looks like-" Sirius nearly fell off the bench as he saw that he was no longer speaking to James Potter, but instead Albus Dumbledore.

James/Albus laughed,

"It's still me mate, it's still James! I just look like old Dumbles!"

This didn't reassure Sirius fully though, as he grinned nervously and instead spoke to Peter. After another few minutes, everyone began to change back to themselves, much to their relief.

"That was a great prank girls!" James grinned appreciatively, "how did you do it?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets Potter!" Lily smiled mysteriously, as three blank faces stared back. "It's a muggle saying, basically just means that I'm not telling you how we did it."

"And I think that makes us winners then? Since you boys failed to come up with a prank?" Alice asked, ready to bask in the glory of winning.

"Not so fast Prewett!" Sirius exclaimed.

"What now? Your prank already failed, what's left?" Alice questioned, thinking that the boys were simply staling for enough time to come up with another prank.

"We're the Marauders. Do you honestly think our pranks are just going to 'fail'? Please, we haven't gotten a reputation in pranking for nothing."

And right on cue, thunder rumbled outside the Great Hall, and rain began to fall. Alice was still staring questioningly at Sirius, so he held up his finger, indicating for her to wait a moment. And sure enough, as the rain began to fall outside, it also did inside. However the rain inside the hall wasn't exactly rain. It was multi coloured Bertie Bott's Every flavoured beans, falling from every inch of the enchanted ceiling. The students stretched out their hands to catch the beans, while some chose to just catch them with their mouth. However the most interesting part of the it wasn't the taste, but whatever surface the beans touched, whether someone's hand, mouth or the ground, would be splashed with the colour of the jelly bean. A blue jelly bean fell on the Gryffindor table between Lily and Alice's plates, leaving a bright blue spot for everyone to see. Soon the ground was covered in different coloured splatters, and the majority of the students reached to catch the jelly beans, enjoying the second prank of the night.

The rest of the meal wasn't half as eventful, but with the previous excitement – no one needed any more. As dinner drew to a close, the Headmaster rose from his chair to make an announcement.

"Thank you to all the seventh years for being prompt for their library study time this morning, the other teachers and I have decided that it is effective, and will be running it for the week before the NEWT exams, in an effort to help with your ongoing preparations. I'm sure that everyone has enjoyed the dinner entertainment today, but now is the time to get some rest. Off to bed now, pip pip!"

Lily and James walked back to the common room with the rest of their friends, deciding to spend the night in the seventh year dorms rather than their own.

"So who won then?" Lily asked as the six of them walked to the Gryffindor tower.

"I say it's a draw." Peter spoke up from next to Sirius.

The other five shrugged and nodded, having no qualms against it.

"But don't worry girls, we'll beat you next time!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Agreed James, "We're not the Marauders for nothing!"

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><p><strong>AN: There we go. Again, I am so sorry for the massive break between updates. Here's hoping that you won't be too angry and can still spare me a review, with a topic for next time! **

**Adios amigos. **


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